Method for reducing ambiguity levels of transmitted symbols

ABSTRACT

The present invention is directed to a transmitter and method for transmitting data in a digital communication system, the method comprising generating an original symbol by mapping the bits of the original bit sequence using a modulation constellation, generating at least one counter part symbol from the original symbol or from at least one counter part bit sequence generated from the original bit sequence where a combination of the original symbol and the at least one counter part symbol forms a quasi pilot symbol.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The invention relates to digital communication systems. It isparticularly applicable to communication systems where data istransmitted over a time-variant or frequency-variant channel, such as inmobile communication systems or satellite communication. It isparticularly applicable to communication systems where data istransmitted over a channel that suffers from noise or interferenceeffects.

2. Description of the Related Art

For transmission over long distances or wireless links, digital data ismodulated onto one or more carriers. Various modulation schemes areknown in prior art, such as amplitude shift keying (ASK), phase shiftkeying (PSK) and mixed amplitude and phase modulation like quadratureamplitude modulation, QAM. In all mentioned modulation types, themodulated signal, in terms of for example voltage or field strength, canbe expressed byu(t)=Re( A·e ^(Jωt))

A bit sequence, or data word, is represented by a symbol which has acomplex value A for a certain time interval (symbol duration), wherein|A|=√{square root over ((Re( A ))²+(Im( A ))²)}{square root over ((Re( A))²+(Im( A ))²)}represents the momentary amplitude of the modulated signal andφ( A )=arctan(Im( A )/Re( A ))represents the momentary phase of the modulated signal. The assignmentbetween bit value combinations and complex values (modulation states) iscalled mapping. Generally a data word consisting of a b-bit bit sequenceresults in a mapping of 2^(b) bit sequences to 2^(b) complex values.

As real transmission channels distort the modulated signal by phaseshift and attenuation, and as they add noise to the signal, errors occurin the received data after demodulation. The probability for errorsusually rises with rising data rate, that is with rising number ofmodulation states and falling symbol duration. To cope with such errors,redundancy can be added to the data, which allows to recognise and tocorrect erroneous symbols. A more economic approach is given by methodswhich repeat only the transmission of data in which un-correctableerrors have occurred, such as hybrid automatic repeat request, HARQ, andincremental redundancy.

In a basic approach to transmit repeated data in prior art, the samemapping as applied in the first transmission is re-used forre-transmission. Thus the complex value representing the repeated dataword is identical to that of the original data word. This will bereferred to as “Simple Mapping”.

EP 1 293 059 B1 shows a method to rearrange digital modulation symbolsin order to improve the mean reliabilities of all bits. This isachievable by changing the mapping rule of bits onto modulation symbols.This patent focuses on the rearrangement for retransmitted data words inan ARQ system.

WO 2004 036 817 and WO 2004 036 818 describe how to achieve thereliability averaging effect for a system where an original and arepeated data word are transmitted over different diversity branches, orin combination with an ARQ system.

The methods and mechanisms of the patent publications cited above willbe referred to as “Constellation Rearrangement” or “CoRe” forsimplicity.

A major difference between wired communication systems and wirelesscommunication systems is the behaviour of the physical channel overwhich information is transmitted. The wireless or mobile channel is byits very nature variant over time and/or frequency. For a goodperformance in most modern mobile communication systems a demodulationof data symbols in a receiver requires an accurate estimation of thechannel, usually measured by a channel coefficient, which includesknowledge about the gain, the phase shift, or both properties of thechannel. To facilitate this, usually some sort of pilot symbols areinserted into or between the data symbol stream, which have apredetermined unambiguous amplitude and/or phase value which can be usedto determine the channel coefficient. This information is then used forcorrection measures like adaptive filtering.

A communication channel may also suffer from noise or interferenceeffects. These effects also influence the transmission of such pilotsymbols. Even if the channel does not change its amplitude and phasecharacteristic, a receiver may make an erroneous estimation of thechannel due to noise or interference. For simplicity the presentdocument is referring to noise and interference effects just as noise;it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the statementsincluded hereafter about noise are mutatis mutandis applicable tointerference.

“Decision-Feedback Demodulation” is an iterative process where a firstrough channel estimate (or none at all) is used to demodulate the datasymbols. After demodulation, and preferably after decoding, the obtainedinformation is fed back to the channel estimator for an improvedestimation resulting from the data symbols. It should be apparent thatthis process causes not only delay and requires a lot of computations ineach iteration step, but it also depends greatly on the quality of thefirst rough channel estimate due to the feedback loop. Such procedure isknown for example from Lutz H.-J. Lampe and Robert Schober, “IterativeDecision-Feedback Differential Demodulation of Bit-Interleaved CodedMDPSK for Flat Rayleigh Fading Channels” in IEEE Transactions onCommunications, Volume: 49, Issue: 7, July 2001, Pages:1176-1184.

Usually the data symbols themselves cannot be accurately used forchannel estimation, since the amplitude and/or phase are not known apriori to demodulation. The receiver has to conclude on a sent symbolbased on the received signal, before channel estimation is possible. Asthe recognition of the symbol might be erroneous, ambiguity isintroduced to the channel estimation. This behaviour can be seen fromFIG. 1 and is further detailed in Table 1 to show the number ofambiguities involved in different digital modulation schemes.

TABLE 1 Properties of selected digital modulation methods Bits perModulation Scheme Symbol Amplitude Ambiguity Phase Ambiguity BPSK 1None/1 Level 2 Levels QPSK 2 None/1 Level 4 Levels 8-PSK 3 None/1 Level8 Levels 2-ASK/4-PSK 3 2 Levels 4 Levels 4-ASK/2-PSK 3 4 Levels 2 Levels8-ASK 3 8 Levels None/1 Level 16-PSK 4 None/1 Level 16 Levels  16-QAM 43 Levels 12 Levels  4-ASK/4-PSK 4 4 Levels 4 Levels 64-QAM 6 9 Levels 52Levels 

From Table 1 it follows also easily that the performance of an iterativedecision-feedback demodulation scheme will further depend greatly on thenumber of ambiguities involved in the modulation scheme. A wrongassumption about the sent symbol leads to a wrong result of the channelestimation. Especially in modulation schemes with a high number ofmodulation states there is a high probability of erroneous symbols dueto inevitable noise. A wrong channel estimation, in turn, leads to wrongcorrection and consequently more errors in received symbols. Thereforethere is a need in the related art for improved reliability of thechannel estimation.

The above-mentioned prior art addresses only the aspect of averaging themean bit reliabilities of bits that are mapped onto one digital symbolby rearranging the mappings or by bit operations prior to mapping. Whilethis has a good effect if the time-/frequency-variant or noisy channelis known very accurately, it does not provide means to improve theknowledge of the time-/frequency-variant channel at the receiver if thecoherence time/frequency is relatively small compared to a data packet,nor means to improve the knowledge of a noisy channel at the receiver.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is therefore the object of the present invention to provide a methodwhich improves the reliability of the channel estimation in a digitaltransmission system.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a transmitterfor a digital communication system which enables improved reliability ofthe channel estimation.

It is a particular object of the present invention to completely removephase ambiguity after combination of an original symbol withretransmitted symbols representing the same data.

This object is achieved by defining a special way of mapping repeateddata words onto signal constellation points. A rearranged constellationpattern is selected that reduces the number of ambiguities when theoriginal and the repeated data symbols are combined. That is, the numberof different results that can be obtained by adding the complex valuesor vectors in the complex number plane representing the constellationpoints of a first transmission and of a re-transmission of the same dataword is lower than the number of original constellation points ormodulation states. The number of phase ambiguities is further reduced toone (i.e. phase ambiguity is completely removed) by using only a subsetof all modulation states which are possible according to the employedmodulation (mapping) scheme for the original and counterpart symbol.This subset is chosen such that the complex values (modulation states)representing all modulation symbols comprised in the subset are withinone half-plane of the complex plane or within a sub-plane of saidhalf-plane. For convenience and clarity, this subset is called “phaseambiguity one subset” or shortly “PAO subset”.

Reducing amplitude ambiguities and removing phase ambiguitiesfacilitates a better channel estimation, less dependent on orindependent of the actual data symbol transmitted.

To achieve a reduced number of amplitude ambiguities:

-   1. Determine the amplitude and phase values for each constellation    point of the original constellation. This may be represented by a    complex value.-   2. For each constellation point of the original constellation,    determine one or more complex counterpart(s) such that    -   a. The coherent combination of original complex value and        counterpart complex value(s) for all data words results in a        reduced number of amplitude levels compared to the original        constellations    -   b. The average transmit power of the counterpart        constellation(s) is identical to the average transmit power of        the original constellation (optional).

To remove phase ambiguities proceed as follows:

-   1. Determine the amplitude and phase values for each constellation    point of the original constellation. This can be represented by a    complex value.-   2. For each constellation point of the original constellation,    determine one or more complex counterpart(s) such that    -   a. the coherent combination of original complex value and        counterpart complex value(s) for each one or at least a part of        all data words results in a reduced number of phase levels        compared to the original constellations;    -   b. the average transmit power of the counterpart        constellation(s) is identical to the average transmit power of        the original constellation (optional).-   3. Select a PAO subset of modulation symbols (constellation points)    from the original constellation to be used for transmission, such    that the complex values representing all modulation symbols    comprised within the PAO subset are within one half-plane of the    complex plane, where the boundary of the half-plane passes through    the complex origin 0+j0, and for each symbol within the PAO subset    the respective complex values of the counterpart(s) according to    item 2 is (are) comprised within the same half-plane.

Step b is optional in both cases, as it is not required for thereduction of ambiguity. However it provides the advantage of uniformtransmission power on the channel over transmitted and re-transmittedsignals.

It should be noted that of course there is a one-to-one correspondencefor each data word between the original constellation and a counterpartconstellation. Therefore the relation between constellation points inthe original constellation and each counterpart constellation isunambiguous, but may be arbitrary. Furthermore, all counterpartconstellations have the same number of constellation points (distinctmodulation states, different assigned complex values) as the originalconstellation.

The counterpart constellation(s) can be generated and the PAO subset canbe selected by the following method:

-   1. Divide the complex plane into two non-overlapping adjacent    sub-planes that each contain half of the constellation points.-   2. For each sub-plane, obtain an average complex value point of all    constellation points in that sub-plane.-   3. For each sub-plane, obtain a counterpart constellation by    approximately mirroring the constellation points of each sub-plane    on the average complex value point.-   4. Choose the symbols within one of the two sub-planes as the PAO    subset of symbols to be used for transmission.

Step 4 is not required if all available modulation states of themodulation scheme are already at least within a half-plane of thecomplex plane. This is for example the case with pure amplitudemodulation like the 8-ASK shown in FIG. 1.

As each system adds noise and distortion to transmitted signals anyway,it is preferable, but not required, that the mentioned mirroring ismathematically exact. An approximate mirroring would be sufficient in areal system. Approximate means that the distance between the actualconstellation point and the ideal mirrored position is less than halfthe distance to the closest constellation point representing a differentvalue of the data word. Such approximate mirroring may be beneficiallyemployed in a fixed-point representation of the complex values, wherethe mathematically exact solution cannot be represented due the reducedaccuracy of fixed-point numbers.

If the condition of constant average transmit power is not required, thefollowing, more general method may be applied:

-   1. Divide the complex plane into two non-overlapping adjacent    sub-planes that each contain half of the constellation points.-   2. For each sub-plane, obtain a symmetry axis with respect to at    least some of the constellation points in that sub-plane.-   3. For each sub-plane, obtain a counterpart constellation by    approximately mirroring the constellation points of each sub-plane    on one pre-defined point on the symmetry axis in that sub-plane.-   4. Choose one of the two sub-planes as the PAO subset of symbols to    be used for transmission.

Again step 4 is not required if all available modulation states of themodulation scheme are already at least within a half-plane of thecomplex plane.

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that these stepsrequire very simple geometrical or calculus skills.

It should be noted that for constellations that are symmetrical to atleast one arbitrary axis in the complex plane, preferably a divisioninto two half-planes is done with respect to such a symmetry axis thatdoes not include any signal point. For constellations that aresymmetrical to the real or imaginary axis, that respective axis is used;otherwise the symmetry axis will be tilted.

It should be apparent that this method may result in counterpartconstellations that are different in shape than the originalconstellation if the constellation is not point-symmetric to themirroring point within each sub-plane. This is particularly true if theoriginal constellation represents a PSK or any mixed ASK/PSK modulationapart from QAM. Keeping the shape of the original constellation may haveadvantages in the implementation of the demodulator (LLR calculator) ofthe receiver, which will not be discussed in further detail herein.

To keep the same shape for the counterpart constellations as for theoriginal constellation, step 1 to step 4 of the counterpartconstellation generation should then be altered as follows:

-   1. Divide the complex plane into two non-overlapping adjacent    sub-planes that each contain half of the constellation points.-   2. Create counterpart constellations such that the number of    counterpart constellations is one less than the number of    constellation points in a sub-plane.-   3. For each sub-plane in each counterpart constellation, permute the    mapping of data words onto constellation points such that in    original and counterpart constellations, each data word is mapped    only and exactly once on each of the constellation points.-   4. Choose one of the two sub-planes as the PAO subset of symbols to    be used for transmission.

It may be noted that for identical shapes of original and counterpartconstellations, the complex values representing the symbols contained insaid PAO subset of the original constellation are identical to thecomplex values representing the symbols that are within the samehalf-plane of the counterpart constellation.

For certain modulation schemes, a reduction of both amplitude and phaseambiguities at the same time is not necessarily required fordemodulation. For example in PSK schemes all data information iscontained in the phase angle of the modulation symbol, the amplitude isquite irrelevant. For PSK the following procedure may be applied toobtain a counterpart constellation which removes phase ambiguities:

-   1. Divide the complex plane into two non-overlapping adjacent    sub-planes that each contain the same number of constellation    points.-   2. For each sub-plane, determine a symmetry axis with respect to the    position of at least a part of the constellation points within this    sub-plane.-   3. Obtain a counterpart constellation by mirroring the constellation    points of each sub-plane on the symmetry axis of this sub-plane.-   4. Choose one of the two sub-planes as the PAO subset of symbols to    be used for transmission.

The mapping of a word using the original constellation, i.e. the mappingof a data word onto a complex value according to the originalconstellation, results in the original constellation symbol or simplyoriginal symbol. Similarly the mapping of a data word using acounterpart constellation, i.e. the mapping of a data word onto acomplex value according to a counterpart constellation, results in thecounterpart constellation symbol or simply counterpart symbol.

In an alternative of the present invention, the object is achieved byusing an identical mapping of pluralities of bits (constituting the datawords) to modulation symbols, and using pre-determined bit manipulationson each plurality of bits for the retransmission(s). In an analogousway, the selection of a PAO subset of the symbols to be used fortransmission is done by replacing at least one of the bits within a word(plurality of bits) mapped to a modulation symbol, by a fixed value,e.g. 0 or 1.

According to one aspect of the present invention, a method fortransmitting data in a digital communication system comprises a)selecting a subset of all available modulation states in apre-determined modulation scheme, to be used for transmission; b) afirst transmission step transmitting a first symbol representing a firstplurality of bits, the symbol having a first modulation state comprisedin said subset; and c) at least one further transmission step (1206)transmitting further symbols representing the first plurality of bits,each of the further symbols having a further modulation state comprisedin said subset. The addition of complex values associated with saidfirst and said further modulation states yields, for each combination ofbit values within the plurality of bits, the same phase of the complexresult.

According to a further aspect of the present invention, acomputer-readable storage medium has stored thereon program instructionsthat, when executed in a processor of a transmitter of a digitalcommunication system, cause the transmitter to perform the methodaccording to the first aspect.

According to still another aspect of the present invention, atransmitter for a digital communication system is configured to performthe method of the first aspect.

According to still a further aspect of the present invention, a basestation for a mobile communication system comprises the transmitteraccording to the preceding aspect.

According to still a further aspect of the present invention, a mobilestation for a mobile communication system comprises the transmitterdefined in the aspect further above.

According to still another aspect of the present invention, a method forreceiving data in a digital communication system, comprises a) first andsecond reception steps receiving a first and a second symbol, bothrepresenting a first plurality of bits; b) a likelihood calculation stepof calculating likelihood values from the received first and secondsymbol for at least a subset of the first plurality of bits; and c) astep of setting likelihood values for at least one pre-determined bitout of said first plurality of bits to a value indicating an unknown bitvalue.

According to a further aspect of the present invention, acomputer-readable storage medium has stored thereon program instructionsthat, when executed in a processor of a receiver of a digitalcommunication system, cause the receiver to perform the method accordingto perform the method of the preceding aspect.

According to still another aspect of the present invention, a receiverfor a digital communication system is configured to perform the methodof the aspect further above.

According to still a further aspect of the present invention, a basestation for a mobile communication system comprises the receiver asdefined above.

According to still a further aspect of the present invention, a mobilestation for a mobile communication system comprises the receiver asdefined above.

Another aspect of the present invention is directed to a transmitter andmethod for transmitting data in a digital communication system, themethod comprising a first transmission step transmitting a first symbolrepresenting a first plurality of bits, the symbol having a firstmodulation state and at least one further transmission step transmittingfurther symbols representing the first plurality of bits, each of thefurther symbols having a further modulation state, wherein a combinationof at least one parameter of the first symbol with at least oneparameter of one of the further symbols results in a smaller number ofdifferent possible resultant parameter states after combination than thenumber of different parameter states before combination.

Another aspect of the present invention is directed to a transmitter andmethod for transmitting data in a digital communication system, themethod comprising generating an original symbol by mapping the bits ofthe original bit sequence using a modulation constellation, generatingat least one counter part symbol from the original symbol or from atleast one counter part bit sequence generated from the original bitsequence where a combination of the original symbol and the at least onecounter part symbol forms a quasi pilot symbol.

Another aspect of the present invention is directed to a receiver and amethod for receiving data in a digital communication system comprisingreception of a first and at least one further symbol, obtaining at leastone combination of at least one parameter of the first symbol with atleast one parameter of the at least one further symbols using the atleast one combination to obtain an estimation of a communication channelparameter.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings are incorporated into and form a part of thespecification for the purpose of explaining the principles of theinvention. The drawings are not to be understood as limiting theinvention to only the illustrated and described examples of how theinvention can be made and used. Further features and advantages willbecome apparent from the following and more particular description ofthe invention, as illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein

FIG. 1 gives an overview over various digital modulation mappingconstellations;

FIG. 2 illustrates an example of original and repeated data wordlocation for data word no. 10 in 16-QAM;

FIG. 3 illustrates an example of original and repeated data wordlocation for data word no. 14 and 39 in 64-QAM;

FIG. 4 depicts the effect of the described method when applied to QPSKmodulation;

FIG. 5 illustrates an alternative example of two mappings for original8-PSK modulation;

FIG. 6 shows an alternative example of two mappings for original 16-PSKmodulation;

FIGS. 7 and 8 illustrate two alternatives for improving the reliabilityof the channel estimation in the case of 8-PSK modulation;

FIG. 9 shows an example of eight mappings for 16-PSK modulation;

FIGS. 10 a-c depict examples of results from coherent combining ofidentical data word values using 2, 4 or 8 different mappings of FIG. 9,respectively;

FIG. 11 depicts examples of a one-dimensional frame structure for Pilotand Data symbols;

FIG. 12 illustrates steps of a method for data transmission in a digitalcommunication system;

FIG. 13 shows an example of a transmitter chain;

FIGS. 14 a-c show an example of combining original and counterpartmapping into a super-mapping for an original 8-PSK modulation.

FIGS. 15 a-c show an example of combining original and counterpartmapping into a super-mapping for an original 16-QAM modulation.

FIG. 16 shows an example for an original mapping and a counterpartmapping in 16-QAM yielding four different combination result valuessimilar to QPSK modulation states;

FIG. 17 gives an example of an original and a counterpart 4-bit sequencein 16-QAM;

FIG. 18 illustrates steps of a method for improving the reliability inthe estimation of transmission channel properties;

FIG. 19 shows steps for determining bits to be replaced by a fixed valueand bits to be inverted for re-transmission with PSK;

FIG. 20 illustrates an example for re-transmission with bit inversionwith 8-PSK;

FIG. 21 shows steps for determining bits to be replaced by a fixed valueand bits to be inverted for re-transmission with ASK;

FIG. 22 illustrates an example for re-transmission with bit inversionwith 8-ASK;

FIG. 23 shows steps for determining bits to be replaced by a fixed valueand bits to be inverted for re-transmission with mixed ASK/PSK;

FIG. 24 illustrates an example for re-transmission with bit inversionwith 4-ASK/4-PSK;

FIG. 25 depicts the 4-ASK part of the modulation scheme of FIG. 24;

FIG. 26 depicts the 4-PSK part of the modulation scheme of FIG. 24;

FIG. 27 shows steps for determining bits to be replaced by a fixed valueand bits to be inverted for re-transmission with square QAM;

FIG. 28 illustrates an example for re-transmission with bit inversionwith 16-QAM;

FIG. 29 depicts the in-phase part of the modulation scheme of FIG. 28;

FIG. 30 depicts the quadrature part of the modulation scheme of FIG. 28;

FIGS. 31 to 34 show examples of non-uniform square QAM;

FIG. 35 shows an example of a transmitter chain;

FIG. 36 illustrates an exemplary structure of a base station;

FIG. 37 illustrates an exemplary structure of a mobile station;

FIG. 38 depicts a suboptimum combination and inversion case resulting ina QPSK-equivalent ambiguity situation for an original 4-ASK/4-PSK;

FIG. 39 depicts a suboptimum combination and inversion case resulting ina QPSK-equivalent ambiguity situation for an original 16-square-QAM;

FIG. 40 illustrates half-planes and half-plane bits in original QPSKaccording to the present invention;

FIG. 41 illustrates half-planes and half-plane bits in original 8-PSKaccording to the present invention; and

FIG. 42 shows half-planes and half-plane bits in original 16-QAMaccording to the present invention.

FIGS. 43 and 44 show examples of half-planes in QPSK and 8-PSK.

FIG. 45 shows an exemplary receiver structure.

FIGS. 46 a and 46 b show a simplified structure of original andcounterpart symbol generation, and their joint interpretation as aQuasi-Pilot.

FIG. 47 illustrates a prior art OFDM frame structure including pilotsymbols, shared control symbols, and shared data symbols.

FIGS. 48 to 56 illustrate different non-exhaustive possibilities howQuasi-Pilot symbols may be positioned in an OFDM frame.

FIG. 57 shows the process of element-wise multiplication of quasi-pilotcomponents with a spreading code.

FIG. 58 shows the process of quasi-pilot-wise multiplication ofquasi-pilot symbols with a spreading code.

FIG. 59 illustrates the process of element-wise spreading of quasi-pilotcomponents with a spreading code.

FIG. 60 illustrates the process of quasi-pilot-wise spreading of aquasi-pilot symbol with a spreading code.

FIG. 61 shows the process of an element-wise constant phase shift ofquasi-pilot components.

FIG. 62 is an example of QPSK showing original and counterpartconstellations when the power combination and phase combination shouldresult each in one level.

FIG. 63 is an example of 8-PSK showing original and counterpartconstellations when the power combination and phase combination shouldresult each in one level.

FIG. 64 is an example of 16-QAM showing original and counterpartconstellations when the power combination and phase combination shouldresult each in one level.

FIG. 65 illustrates the usage of different modulation schemes dependingon whether Quasi-Pilot symbols or simple data symbols are used.

FIG. 66 illustrates the usage of the same modulation schemes fororiginal symbols, counterpart symbols, and simple data symbols.

FIG. 67 is a flowchart diagram about the method to obtain one or morecounterpart constellation(s) from an original constellation when powercombination is considered.

FIG. 68 is a flowchart diagram about the method to obtain one or morecounterpart constellation(s) from an original constellation whenamplitude combination is considered.

FIG. 69 is a flowchart diagram about the method to obtain one or morecounterpart constellation(s) from an original constellation when phasecombination is considered.

FIG. 70 is an example of 4-ASK/4-PSK showing original and counterpartconstellations when the amplitude combination and phase combinationshould result each in one level.

In all Figures that show mappings or constellations, a point isidentified by a numeric label. It should be apparent to those skilled inthe art that this labelling is meant to represent a given data word orbit sequence in the context of communication; the labels themselves aresolely used to represent a fixed but arbitrary data word; sequentiallabels therefore do not have to represent sequential bit sequences interms of their binary, octal, decimal, hexadecimal, or other numericrepresentation.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

FIG. 2 shows an example of a transmission using the 16-QAM modulationscheme. According to Table 1, such a data modulation symbol carries fourbits. In the method described herein, these four bits are transmittedtwice:

-   1. Using a first constellation mapping 201 for the original data    word of four bits;-   2. Using a second, different, constellation 202 for the repeated    data word of four bits.

Without loss of generality we assume in the following that the averagetransmit power of a constellation is equal to 1. The values given in thefigures refer to this situation. It should be apparent to those skilledin the art how to adjust the values properly if the average transmitpower is different from 1. It is also obvious how to obtain transmitpower values of digital modulation symbols such that the averagetransmit power of all digital modulation symbols is 1, or any otherarbitrary value.

To obtain counterpart constellation 202 from original constellation 201,the complex plane is divided along imaginary axis 203 into twonon-overlapping adjacent sub-planes 204 and 205. For the constellationin FIG. 2, the imaginary axis is a symmetry axis. Diagonal line 206might also be used, but it is advantageous to select a parting line forboth sub-planes, on which no constellation points are located. Next,symmetry axes for both sub-planes are determined. In the case of FIG. 2,the real axis 207 is a symmetry axis for both sub-planes. To obtain areduced ambiguity after combining an original transmitted data word withits repeated version, the position of a constellation point in thecounterpart constellation has to be mirrored with respect to a point208, 209 on the symmetry axis, that is the real axis 207, from theoriginal constellation point. According to the division into sub-planes204 and 205, all constellation points belonging to sub-plane 204 have tobe mirrored with respect to point 208, while all constellation pointsbelonging to sub-plane 205 have to be mirrored with respect to point209. In order to achieve identical average transmission power oftransmission and re-transmission, this mirroring point 208, 209 shouldbe equal to the average of all complex values in the respectivesub-plane.

In FIG. 2, for word number 10 the modulation states or constellationpoints of the original mapping and the counterpart constellation arehighlighted.

In order to remove phase ambiguities after combination of original andcounterpart symbol completely, one of the sub-planes 204 and 205 ischosen as PAO subset to be used for the transmission. If sub-plane 204is chosen, only constellation points (modulation states) 9-16 are usedfor both transmission and retransmission. Conversely, if sub-plane 205is chosen as PAO subset, only constellation points 1-8 are used for bothtransmission and retransmission.

FIGS. 43 and 44 show examples of possible divisions of the complex planeinto non-overlapping adjacent sub-planes (here half planes). Modulationstates on one of the sub-planes 4301 or 4302, 4303 or 4304, 4401 or4402, 4403 or 4404, 4405 or 4406, 4407 or 4408 could be chosen as thesubset of modulation states to be used for the transmissions. Halfplanes 4305 or 4306 are not recommended, as there are modulation stateson the line dividing the sub-planes.

As the PAO subset contains only some of the constellation pointsavailable in the original modulation scheme, data to be transmitted hasto be adapted to the reduced channel capacity. Assuming that the PAOsubset contains exactly half of the constellation points available inthe original modulation scheme, this can for example be done by

-   -   distributing data bits on a higher number of modulation symbols        (for example transmitting 3 words with 4 bits each on 4 symbols        instead of 3) or    -   puncturing one bit per transmitted symbol;    -   alternatively, a higher order modulation scheme may be used, for        example 32-QAM instead of 16-QAM.

FIG. 3 shows a first 301 and a further mapping 302 for 64-QAM. Here,again, the complex plane is divided into two non-overlapping adjacentsub-planes along the imaginary axis 303. Then for the second mapping,each constellation point is mirrored from its original position in thefirst constellation with regard to the average complex value 304, 305 inthe same sub-plane, respectively according to the sub-plane to that aconstellation point belongs. Either the right or the left half-plane isselected to be used for transmission, i.e. the PAO subset eithercomprises constellation points 1 to 32 or constellation points 33 to 64.

The result of combining original transmission and repeated (counterpart)transmission of the same arbitrary word is demonstrated in FIG. 4 forthe example of QPSK. To obtain the second or further or counterpartmapping 402 from the first or original mapping 401, the complex plane isdivided along imaginary axis 403 into two non-overlapping adjacentsub-planes 404 and 405. In each sub-plane, the constellation points aremirrored with regard to average values 406 and 407, respectively. Theword number “1” is represented in the first mapping by vector 408 and inthe second mapping by vector 409. As average carrier amplitude isdefined to be 1, each vector has a length of 1. Coherent combining ofthe symbols is equivalent to the addition of both vectors which yields areal number 410 of √2. FIG. 4 b-d show the coherent combining for wordnumbers “2”, “3” and “4” respectively. It appears that the number ofambiguities is reduced to one amplitude level and two phase levels 410and 411, similar to a BPSK modulation. This allows to easily andunambiguously determine the attenuation of a transmission channel, andits phase shift between −π and +π. The reduction of used constellationpoints to either only “1” and “2” or only “3” and “4” results in afurther reduction of possible combination results to either point 410 orpoint 411 alone, respectively.

The principle explained in conjunction with FIG. 4 for the example ofQPSK can be applied in a similar way to all QAM constellations, wherebythe coherent combining results in one single value, independent of thenumber of modulation states or constellation points.

If it is not required to maintain the shape of the originalconstellation for the counterpart (or second or further) constellation,it is always possible to find a single counterpart constellation thatfulfils the requirements of removing ambiguities completely. An examplefor this situation is shown in FIG. 5, where the original (first)mapping follows the 8-PSK scheme. To achieve the BPSK-equivalence aftercoherent combining of two mappings, the complex plane is divided alongimaginary axis 503 into non-overlapping adjacent sub-planes 504 and 505.In each sub-plane each constellation point is mirrored with regard toaverage complex value 506 or 507, respectively. For example, theconstellation point for the word number “1” is mirrored with respect topoint 507 to position 508. The counterpart (second) mapping 502 resultsin a mixed ASK/PSK constellation. Again either sub-plane 504 (points5-8) or sub-plane 505 (points 1-4) is chosen as PAO subset to be usedfor both transmission and retransmission to remove the remaining phaseambiguity of the BPSK-equivalence.

FIG. 6 shows a similar situation for the case that the original (first)mapping is a 16-PSK scheme. If the ambiguity is to be removed, then thecounterpart (second) mapping is quite irregular.

If the shape of the original constellation should be kept for thecounterpart constellation(s), it may happen that more than onecounterpart constellation is required to remove the phase ambiguities.This is particularly true for PSK modulations with more than four signalconstellation points. Examples for such counterpart constellations andresults from coherent combination of same are given in FIG. 7 for 8-PSK,and examples for counterpart constellations in FIG. 9 and the respectiveresults from coherent combining in FIG. 10 a-c for 16-PSK. As can beseen, the constellation points or modulation states for allretransmissions are in the same sub-plane as the constellation point forthe original transmission. Therefore Constellation points within one ofthe sub-planes 706, 707, 804, 805 etc. may be chosen as PAO subset to beused for the transmissions.

Turning to FIG. 7, the complex plane of original constellation (firstmapping) 701 is divided into two non-overlapping adjacent sub-planes 706and 707 by imaginary axis 705. Within each sub-plane the mappings of agiven data word onto a constellation point are permuted such that thesame word is assigned exactly once to each position (constellationpoint) in its sub-plane within all mappings 701-704. Consequently,coherent combining of all four transmissions of the same word results inthe same value, independent of the word value. In FIG. 7, word number“1” is represented by vector 708 in the first mapping 701, by vector 709in second mapping 702, by vector 710 in the third mapping 703 and byvector 711 in mapping 704. The result 712 is the real value of roughly2.6131 for all word values assigned to the right half-plane, as for allword values the same vectors are added, just in different order.Similarly the real value of roughly −2.6131 is the result 713 for allvalues assigned to the left half-plane. Consequently ambiguity can becompletely removed by using four mappings of words onto constellationpoints and choosing either only modulation states 1-4 or only modulationstates 5-8 to be used for the transmissions.

If only phase ambiguity should be removed for PSK schemes, it can beenough to use only one counterpart constellation which results in acombined result like in FIG. 8 or FIG. 10 a or 10 b, which already showonly one phase level (in this case either 0 degree or 180 degree to thereal axis if either points 1-4 or points 5-8 for 8-PSK (FIG. 8), oreither point 1-8 or point 9-16 for 16-PSK (FIG. 9) are chosen for thePAO subset).

In FIG. 8, the complex plane is divided along imaginary axis 803 intonon-overlapping adjacent sub-planes 804 and 805. Instead of mirroringeach constellation position from its position in first mapping 801 withregard to a point, to obtain the position within second mapping 802, theposition is mirrored with regard to the real axis 806, which is asymmetry axis for both sub-planes. The combination of first (original)transmission and repeated transmission of word number “1” is the sum ofvectors 807 and 808, which yields the real value of roughly 0.7654 atpoint 812. The same would hold true for word number “4”. When combiningvectors 809 and 810 for word numbers “2” or “3”, the result is roughly1.8478 at point 811.

Even though the ambiguity in amplitude is higher than 1, such a scenariowill improve the channel estimation capabilities greatly, as the exactamplitude may not be required in the demodulation process of a PSKmodulation scheme.

FIG. 9 shows 8 different mappings for 16-PSK. If only first and secondmapping are combined, 4 results are possible on either half of the realaxis, as shown in FIG. 10 a (four amplitude levels). When the first fourmappings are combined, two results occur for each possible PAO subset,as shown in FIG. 10 b (two amplitude levels). Only when all 8 mappingsare combined, ambiguity is completely removed when reducing the set ofused constellation points to those on the right or those on the lefthalf-plane.

The procedure disclosed in this invention can be interpreted as arearrangement of the mapping rules from word (plurality of bits) toconstellation point between the original and the repeated version of theword. Therefore we refer to this method also as “RepetitionRearrangement”, or “ReRe” for short in following sections.

Not all words in a frame have to be transmitted using the repetitionrearrangement approach as disclosed in the present invention. If thechannel is only slowly varying, a small number of ReRe words can besufficient to facilitate good channel estimation conditions for areceiver. Consequently other data words can use other methods known fromprior art, such as transmission without repetition, Simple Mappingrepetition or Constellation Rearrangement (CoRe) repetition. The latteris the preferred solution in a repetition scenario as it usuallyprovides smaller bit error rates at a receiver. Such repetitionalternatives are depicted in FIG. 11. Data frame 1101 contains datatransmitted according to prior art, in this case with constellationrearrangement. In contrary, data frame 1102 contains only datatransmitted according to the method presented herein. Data frame 1103contains data transmitted according to both methods. Data word 1104,transmitted using a first (original) mapping, is repeated as data word1105 according to a second mapping as described in detail above. Thesame applies to data word 1106, which is re-transmitted as data word1107.

The amount and position of ReRe data symbols may be additionallysignaled in a Control Channel explicitly or by means of a predefinedparameter from the transmitter to the receiver, to provide the receiverwith knowledge which part of the data frame follows which repetitionstrategy.

For selective channels, it is advantageous that an original symbol andits counterpart symbol(s) are transmitted in adjacent places within atime frame, since the benefit of repetition rearrangement depends onchannel conditions that are as equal as possible for original andcounterpart symbols. Alternatively it would be possible to transmitoriginal symbol and counterpart symbol at the same time in differentfrequency channels of a FDMA system, or in different code channels of aCDMA system. It should be obvious to those skilled in the art that thesealternatives can be combined. For example in an OFDM system, theoriginal and counterpart symbol can be transmitted on adjacentsubcarriers, in adjacent time slots, or both. The latter possibility isparticularly applicable when there are several counterpart symbols to betransmitted with the same original symbol, for example three counterpartsymbols for 8-PSK. Then the first counterpart symbol can be transmittedin an adjacent time slot in the same subcarrier as the original symbol;the second counterpart symbol can be transmitted in the same time slotin an adjacent subcarrier to the original symbol; the third counterpartsymbol can be transmitted in an adjacent subcarrier in an adjacent timeslot to the original symbol.

The examples shown in the figures show mapping constellations thatresult in combined signal points that come to lie on the right axis inthe graphs, usually representing the real part axis in the complexsignal plane. It should be apparent to those skilled in the art thatother mappings can be defined that reach a reduced number of ambiguitieswithout resulting in combined signal points on the real axis. Forexample, it is very easy to define QAM mappings that result in signalpoints on the imaginary axis. Likewise it is easily possible to definemappings for PSK that result in points on a straight line inclined at acertain angle to the real axis. Which of such mappings is chosen can bean implementational choice of the system designer, and has no directinfluence on the technical concept as far as this invention isconcerned.

This description has focussed on modulation constellations that requirecoherent demodulation. Consequently the algorithm described isformulated such that original and rearranged constellation points arecombined coherently as well. However it should be apparent that thedesign algorithm as well as the combining method can be easily modifiedto be suitable for a non-coherent approach. For example, for ASK asimple non-coherent detection of the carrier amplitude would bepossible, and the scalar values could be added for combination.

In the detailed description above, always two non-overlapping adjacentsub-planes have been used. As an alternative example for multipledivisions into sub-planes, the division could be done into 4non-overlapping adjacent quarter planes, each quarter plane resembling aquadrant of the complex plane. A counterpart constellation to the 1stMapping in FIG. 9 could then be the 3rd mapping in the same figure. Insuch a case, modulation states within one of the four quarter planeswould have to be chosen as PAO subset of modulation states to be usedfor all transmissions, for example numbers 1-4, 5-8, 9-12 or 13-16.

An original and counterpart mapping with four non-overlapping adjacentquarter planes for 16-QAM is shown in FIG. 16 a-b respectively. Hereagain only modulation states within one of the four quarter planes maybe chosen for the PAO subset to be used for all transmissions.Combination of original symbol and retransmission symbol would result inone of the points 1601-1604, depending on the selected PAO subset.

A further side criterion when choosing counterpart mappings is thatunder no circumstances the coherent combination should result in theorigin of the complex plane. This is simply due to the reason that areceiver could not extract any information on the channel state from acombined signal point of complex value 0.

In another alternative, only a sub-set of all possible modulation statesor a sub-set of all existing data word values may be subject to thedescribed method. Even this way ambiguity in the determination oftransmission channel properties may be reduced.

This description has assumed that the original and repeated data wordconsist each of the same b-bit bit sequence. For simplicity of thedescription, a mapping was assumed that maps b bits onto one complexvalue. Therefore an original constellation consists of 2^(b) distinctcomplex values, and a counterpart constellation consists of 2^(b)complex values. An original constellation and one or more counterpartconstellations can be summarised into a “super-constellation”. Thissuper-constellation may then represent a “super-mapping” that summarisesthe original mapping and one or more counterpart mappings. In such acase the control information that signifies the original or counterpartmapping has to be included into the super-mapping orsuper-constellation.

A control word is pre-pended to each data word. The control word assumesa specific value for each transmission, e.g. “1” for the firsttransmission of a data word, “2” for the second transmission of the samedata word, and so on. The super-mapping maps the different values ofconcatenated control word and data word to modulation states orsuper-constellation points. Thus, different mappings from data wordvalues to modulation states are obtained for different values of thecontrol word. If the super-mapping is arranged in an appropriate way,the different mappings from data word values to modulation states mayexhibit the properties described above.

FIG. 14 a shows an original constellation for the example 8-PSK, andFIG. 14 b shows the related counterpart constellation. For example,constellation point 1401 represents symbol “1” in a first transmissionand constellation point 1402 represent the same symbol in a secondtransmission or re-transmission.

It may be noted that the difference to the constellations shown in FIG.5 is limited to different labels of the constellation points. Thisdifference is only a matter of convenience; those skilled in the artwill realise that it is a matter of convention whether symbols arenumbered from 1 to 8 or from 0 to 7. From the constellations in FIGS. 14a and 14 b the super-constellation in FIG. 14 c is obtained by includingthe constellation points from both constellations, prepending a leading“0” or “1” to the label to signify whether this constellation point wasgenerated using the original or the counterpart mapping respectively.Consequently in FIG. 14 c all points bearing a label that begins with“0” are equivalent to the original constellation points and therespective mapping, and all points bearing a label that begins with “1”are equivalent to the counterpart constellation and the respectivemapping.

FIG. 15 a shows an original constellation for the example 16-QAM, andFIG. 15 b shows the related counterpart constellation. It may be notedthat the difference to the constellations shown in FIG. 2 is limited todifferent labels of the constellation points, following the same reasonas described above for FIGS. 14 a-c. From the constellations in FIGS. 15a and 15 b the super-constellation in FIG. 15 c is obtained by includingthe constellation points from both constellations, prepending a leading“0” or “1” to the label to signify whether this constellation point wasgenerated using the original or the counterpart mapping respectively.Since the positions of constellation points are identical, and theoriginal and counterpart constellations vary only in the labelling, inFIG. 15 c each constellation point has to represent two labels. Forexample, constellation point 1501 represents value “1” in a firsttransmission and value “4” in a second transmission or re-transmission.Consequently, it represents the values “01” and “14” in thesuper-constellation. Similarly, point 1502 represents “4” in the firsttransmission and “1” in the second transmission. In the superconstellation of FIG. 15 c it represents the values “04” and “11”.

All labels that begin with “0” are equivalent to the originalconstellation points and the respective mapping and label, and alllabels that begin with “1” are equivalent to the counterpartconstellation and the respective mapping and labels.

It may be noted that such super-mappings and super-constellations aresimilar in nature to the so-called “set partitioning” approach that isknown to those skilled in the art of Trellis-Coded Modulation. Exampleliterature for this can be found in G. Ungerboeck, “Trellis-codedmodulation with redundant signal sets Part I: Introduction” and“Trellis-coded modulation with redundant signal sets Part II: State ofthe art”, both in IEEE Communications Magazine, Volume: 25, Issue: 2,February 1987, Pages:5-11 and 12-21.

FIG. 12 shows a flow chart for a method which may be used to reduce theambiguities in data symbols in a digital communication system. Themethod consists of a mapping generation step 1201, a transmission step1205 and one or more re-transmission steps 1206.

To start with, a first mapping is generated in step 1202. This mappingmay be generated at random, according to a specified algorithm or bysimply reading it from a table stored in the transmitter employing thismethod. This table may further be received from another entity like abase station or a mobile station for which the transmission isdesignated. Next, in step 1208 an appropriate PAO subset of allmodulation states is selected to be used for the transmissions,following the rules given above. This step may alternatively be carriedout after step 1204. A further step 1203 then generates a second mappingaccording to one of the algorithms given above. Step 1204 querieswhether more mappings should be generated. In this case the loop returnsto step 1203. If not, the method proceeds with step 1209. The generatedmappings may be stored in the table for later use. Therefore thegeneration step 1201 is not necessarily required for each transmissionsession or even for each transmitted data word. Furthermore, it is alsopossible to store all used mappings during production of thetransmitter, for example with the firmware download, or to receive allmappings from another entity and to store them in the table in thememory.

In step 1209, data to be transmitted is adapted to the reducedtransmission capacity, for example by rearranging bits to a highernumber of words or by puncturing bits. In step 1205, a symbol istransmitted according to the first mapping representing a data word. Thesame data word is transmitted again as a re-transmit symbol in step 1206according to a second mapping generated in step 1203. Step 1207 querieswhether more mappings exist according to which the data word should betransmitted. If this is the case, the method goes back to repeat steps1206 and 1207. If no further mapping exists, the method ends thetransmission of this data word. Although all transmissions of the samedata word should advantageously be sent in close temporal proximity,other data words might be transmitted in between.

In FIG. 13 a transmitter 1300 is illustrated which can be used totransmit data according to the method described above.

In the transmitter 1300, an information bit stream to be transmitted isencoded in encoder 1301. The encoded bit stream is interleaved in randombit interleaver 1302. In S/P unit 1303, groups of bits are combined todata words. The number of bits to be combined depends on the number ofmodulation states available. For example, for 16-QAM Id 16=4 bit arecombined into one data word, for 64-QAM Id 64=6 bit are combined intoone data word. In repeater 1304, data words are repeated forre-transmission. The repetition factor and the ratio of data words to berepeated is depending on the particular version of the method. Thegenerated words are sent to mapper 1305. Mapper 1305 may work accordingto different modes. In a first mode equivalent to Simple Mapping, itmaps un-repeated words or maps repeated words to complex symbols usingonly one word-to-constellation-point mapping. In a constellationrearrangement mode, mapper 1305 applies the constellation rearrangementdescribed in the prior art section by applying different mappings to thewords generated by repeater 1304. In a third mode, mapper 1305 appliesthe method described herein to the words generated by repeater 1304.Mapper 1305 is controlled by mapping control unit 1306 which selects themapping mode to be applied to the words. If the third mode is selected,mapper 1305 receives mapping information from mapping control unit 1306which may comprise a memory 1307 for storing a table containing mappinginformation. Mapping control unit 1306 is further configured to selectin the third mapping mode the second and further mappings (i.e.counterpart mappings or counterpart constellations) for there-transmissions derived from the first mapping used for the firsttransmission according to the rules defined above. The mappings may becalculated at run time according to the rules given above. Alternativelythey may be read out from the table in memory 1307 where they havepreviously been stored according to a communication system design.

Various mapping modes as described above may be used alternatively,according to information provided by the network or by the receivingunit. Further they may be used alternately within a single frameaccording to a pre-defined pattern like with frame 1103 shown in FIG.11. Information about such a pattern, as well as information about themappings used may be sent to the receiving unit via control datatransmitter 1308 and transmission channel 1312. Further, repetitioncontrol unit 1309 controls the repetition factor of repeater 1304according to the requirements of mapping control unit 1306. For example,in the third mapping mode repetition control unit 1309 receivesinformation from mapping control unit 1306 about the number ofrepetitions required for the selected mapping.

After the mapping, pilot data is added and frames are combined inPilot/Data frame creation unit 1310 before the information is modulatedonto a carrier in modulator 1311. The modulated signal is sent to areceiving entity via channel 1312.

Depending on the particular implementation, transmitter 1300 maycomprise further units like IF stage, mixers, power amplifier orantenna. From a signal flow point of view, such units might also be seencomprised in channel 1312, as they all may add noise to the signal orexert phase shift or attenuation on the signal.

Units 1301 to 1311 may be implemented in dedicated hardware or in adigital signal processor. In this case the processor performs the methoddescribed herein by executing instructions read from a computer-readablestorage medium like read-only memory, electrically erasable read-onlymemory or flash memory. These instructions may further be stored onother computer-readable media like magnetic disc, optical disc ormagnetic tape to be downloaded into a device before it is brought touse. Also mixed hardware and software embodiments are possible.

Alternatively, the present invention may be implemented using onemapping of words (pluralities of bits) to modulation states togetherwith additional bit manipulation steps.

As an example, let us assume a transmission using the 16-QAM modulationscheme, as it can be seen in FIG. 17 and FIG. 28. According to Table 1,such a data symbol carries four bits. In the method described hereinthese four bits are transmitted twice:

-   1. Using the 16-QAM mapping for the original sequence (four bits)-   2. Using the same 16-QAM mapping for the counterpart sequence (four    bits)

Generally for any modulation scheme which it not a pure ASK, a requiredbit manipulation step is the replacement of at least one bit by a fixedvalue to select a sub-plane according to the methods outlined above.This is illustrated in FIG. 17 for a Gray mapping where as an examplethe original bit sequence 1010 and the counterpart sequence 1100 arehighlighted. Each sequence of four bits is mapped to a modulation stateof the 16-QAM. As the applied mapping is a Gray mapping, closestneighbours always differ in the value of only one bit. For examplemodulation state 1701 is assigned to the bit sequence “0000”. The fourclosest neighbours 1702-1705 are assigned to bit sequences “0001”,“0010”, “0100” and “1000”.

Each sequence of four bits is associated with a further bit sequencewhich is obtained by bit inversion as explained below. Additionally, inboth original and counterpart bit sequence, at least one of the bits,which has to be appropriately chosen, is replaced by a fixed value, e.g.0 or 1. As a result of combining the first symbol resulting from thefirst bit sequence with the further symbol resulting from the furtherbit sequence, phase ambiguity is removed and one of two possible vectorsum results 1706 or 1707 is obtained, depending on the fixed value ofthe replaced bit(s). Due to the effect of the reduction of the phaseambiguity to one, these one or more bits that carry said fixed value arereferred to as PAO bit(s).

The flow chart of FIG. 18 illustrates the steps necessary for removingphase ambiguity in transmission channel estimation.

In step 1801 a first sequence or plurality of bits is received. Thenumber of bits comprised within one sequence depends on the number ofdifferent modulation states in the applied modulation scheme. Forexample, for 64-QAM each sequence contains Id 64=6 bits. For 8-PSK eachplurality of bits contains Id 8=3 bits.

In step 1802 one or more bit(s) within the received plurality of bits isreplaced by a fixed value. This corresponds to the selection of the PAOsubset of modulation states to be used for the transmissions, which isdescribed herein above.

Obviously if one of these bits is replaced by a fixed value, it losesthe capability to transmit information in the usual sense. Thereforeeach used PAO bit within the same sequence of plurality of bits reducesthe number of usable different modulation states by a factor of two. Forexample if one of the six bits defining a 64-QAM modulation symbol isreplaced by a fixed value, only 0.5*64=32 remaining modulation symbolsof the 64 modulation symbols will be generated, depending on the bitvalue of the remaining five bits. If a bit separates the set ofmodulation symbols in such a way that for a first fixed value of saidbit the remaining 50% of the modulation symbols can be represented by afirst half-plane of the complex plane, and for a second fixed value ofsaid bit the remaining 50% of the modulation symbols can be representedby a second half-plane of the complex plane, and the first and secondhalf-plane are non-overlapping and adjacent and the boundary between thefirst and second half-plane contains the complex origin 0+j0, then thisbit is referred to as a “half-plane bit”. Examples for QPSK, 8-PSK and16-QAM are shown in FIGS. 40 to 42, respectively. In the left examples,half-plane bit 4001, 4101 and 4201 selects vertically separatedhalf-planes 4002, 4102, 4202 or 4003, 4103, 4203 depending on its fixedvalue. In the right examples, half-plane bit 4004, 4104 and 4204 selectsvertically separated half-planes 4005, 4105, 4205 or 4006, 4106, 4206depending on its fixed value.

In step 1803 the first plurality of bits is mapped to a modulation stateaccording to a pre-defined Gray mapping of bit sequences to modulationstates. In step 1804 the first bit sequence is transmitted by modulatinga carrier according to the modulation state assigned to the bit sequencein the Gray mapping.

For each re-transmission a sub-set of bits comprised in the bit sequenceis determined for inversion in step 1805. Determining step 1805 may forexample be carried out by executing a determining algorithm, byreceiving data from a peer entity or by just reading data from a memory.In step 1806 a further plurality of bits is obtained by taking the firstplurality of bits from step 1801 and inverting those bits according toone of the inversion rules determined in step 1805. This further bitsequence is mapped onto a modulation state in step 1807 according to thesame Gray mapping used in step 1803. As will be explained further below,the bit replaced by a fixed value in step 1802 is selected such that themodulation state to which the further plurality of bits is mapped instep 1807 is also comprised within the PAO subset of modulation statesselected with the bit operation in step 1802. In step 1808 the firstsequence is re-transmitted by transmitting the further sequence obtainedin step 1806, that is by modulating the carrier according to themodulation state obtained in step 1807.

Step 1809 queries whether there are further re-transmissions of the samefirst bit sequence to be done. If this is the case, the method returnsto box 1805. If not, the method ends and the transmission andre-transmissions of the first bit sequence are done.

As mentioned above, in determining step 1805 one inversion rule ischosen to obtain a further bit sequence. This inversion rule can beexpressed as a sub-set of bits which have to be inverted. Depending onthe mapping method chosen, there can be one or several inversion rulesrequired to reduce the ambiguities to the desired target levels.Determining step 1805 should choose one of such rules for eachre-transmission, preferably such that each inversion rule will have beendetermined once for a given first plurality of bits. A half-plane bitthat is chosen to be used for phase ambiguity reduction to one (i.e.according to above definition a PAO bit) cannot be chosen as a bit to beinverted in the counterpart sequence, and vice versa. In the following,the determination of inversion rules which should be chosen from in step1805 and the selection of an appropriate PAO bit step 1802 will beexplained in greater detail with reference to different modulationschemes.

For PSK modulations using Gray Mapping the following algorithm shown inFIG. 19 may be applied:

-   -   Let n be the number of bits mapped onto one PSK symbol (step        1901).    -   From the n bits, choose n−1 bits for inversion candidates (step        1902).    -   Inversion Rule(s): Determine the bits to be inverted by        obtaining all possible combinations using 1 to all n−1 bits of        the chosen n−1 bits (step 1903).    -   Obtain the n−1 counterpart bit sequences from the original bit        sequences by inverting the bit(s) from the above found        combinations.    -   One half-plane bit which is not chosen for inversion is the PAO        bit, i.e. the half-plane bit to be replaced by a fixed value        (step 1904).

An example is explained for the constellation shown in FIG. 20.

-   -   Using 8-PSK, 3 bits are mapped onto one symbol        n=3.    -   The first and third bit are chosen for inversion candidates.    -   Inversion rules: Invert only the 1st, only the 3rd, or both the        1st+3rd bit.    -   Half-plane bits are the first and the second bit

Since the first bit is used to generate the counterpart constellation inthe inversion rule, the second bit is selected as the PAO bit andtherefore replaced by a fixed value 0 or 1.

PAO bit set to 0 PAO bit set to 1 Original bit sequences in 000, 001,101, 100 011, 010, 110, 111 Gray coding Counterpart sequences 100, 101,001, 000 111, 110, 010, 011 inverting first bit Counterpart sequences001, 000, 100, 101 010, 011, 111, 110 inverting third bit Counterpartsequences 101, 100, 000, 001 110, 111, 011, 010 inverting first andthird bit

Modulation state 2001 is assigned to bit sequence “000”. By applying theinversion rules, bit sequences “100”, “001” and “101” are obtained, towhich modulation states 2002-2004 are assigned. The symbols are combinedby adding the vectors 2005-2008 representing the complex values of thecarrier for these modulation states. The result is point 2009 for thefixed PAO bit value of 0, and point 2010 for the fixed PAO bit valueof 1. Therefore the result can only have one amplitude value and onephase value.

For all schemes that involve PSK at least partly (for example n-PSK,n-ASK/m-PSK, n-QAM, as outlined above), that is at least part of theinformation is contained in the phase of an information symbol, thenumber of ambiguities can be completely removed.

For ASK modulations where the transmit power of the symbols is sortedeither in ascending or descending order according to Gray Coding asshown in FIG. 22, the following algorithm shown in FIG. 21 may beapplied:

-   -   Let n be the number of bits mapped onto one ASK symbol (step        2101).    -   Inversion rule: Invert exactly the one bit that carries the same        bit value for the exactly 0.5*2=2^(n-1) symbols with the lowest        transmit powers (step 2102).    -   Obtain the counterpart sequence by applying the inversion rule        to the original bit sequences.

It may be noted by those skilled in the art that the same inversion bitmay be alternatively identified as the bit that carries the same bitvalue for the exactly 0.5*2^(n)=2^(n-1) symbols with the highesttransmit powers.

As an example, the 8-ASK-modulation with the mapping of FIG. 22 isregarded. In FIG. 22, bars 2201, 2202 and 2203 indicate where bit 1, 2and 3, respectively, has a value of “1”. The bit order assumed isb₁b₂b₃.

-   -   Using 8-ASK, 3 bits are mapped onto one symbol        n=3    -   The bit that carries the same value for the exactly 0.5*23=4        smallest transmit power symbols is the 2nd bit b₂, which is        equal to one for those symbols.    -   Inversion rule: Invert the 2nd bit b₂.    -   Original bit sequences in Gray Coding:    -   011, 010, 110, 111, 101, 100,000, 001    -   Counterpart sequences inverting 2nd bit:    -   001, 000, 100, 101, 111, 110, 010, 011.

Modulation state 2204 is assigned to bit sequence “011”. According tothe inversion rule above, the counterpart sequence, “001”, is obtainedby inverting the second bit. To the counterpart sequence “001”,modulation state 2205 is assigned. The symbols are combined by addingvectors 2206 and 2207 representing the complex values of modulationstates 2204 and 2205. By calculating the combination result of all firstbit sequences with their counterpart sequence, it becomes apparent thatthe result is always point 2208. Therefore in this case there is noambiguity left in the determination of the transmission channelproperties.

For pure ASK modulations the replacement of a bit by a fixed value isnot required, as all modulation states are within one half-plane anyway,and any ambiguity can be removed completely by the inversion procedureoutlined above alone.

For mixed ASK/PSK modulations as shown in FIG. 24, where the bits areseparable into bits that carry Gray Coded ASK information and bits thatcarry Gray Coded PSK information (“star QAM”), these bits should betreated individually according to the PSK or ASK rules described above.The resulting algorithm is shown in the flow chart of FIG. 23:

-   -   Separate the ASK/PSK modulation into independent ASK and PSK        parts (step 2301).    -   Determine inversion rules separately for the ASK and PSK part        according to the algorithms described above.    -   Determine which ASK/PSK bits correspond to the inversion rule        bits from the ASK part (step 2302) and the PSK part (step 2303).    -   A PSK half-plane bit which has not been selected for inversion        in the mentioned PSK part is selected as PAO bit for being        replaced by a fixed value (step 2304).    -   Determine ASK/PSK inversion rules by combining from 1 to all        ASK/PSK inversion rule bits (step 2305).    -   Obtain all counterpart sequences by inverting bits according to        the determined ASK/PSK inversion rules.

As an example, the star-QAM of FIG. 24 is regarded.

-   -   Using 4-ASK/4-PSK as seen in FIG. 24, the first 2 bits 2401,        2402 are mapped as PSK, and last 2 bits 2403, 2404 are mapped as        ASK−>nASK=2, nPSK-2.    -   ASK part (see FIG. 25):        -   The bit that carries the same value for the 0.5*2²=2            smallest transmit power symbols is the 1st bit 2403, which            is equal to zero for those bits        -   Inversion rule: Invert the 1st ASK bit 2403.        -   Original ASK bit sequences in Gray Coding: 00, 01, 11, 10        -   Counterpart sequences inverting 1st bit 2403: 10, 11, 01, 00            -   PSK part (see FIG. 26)        -   The second bit 2402 is chosen for inversion.        -   Inversion rule: Invert the 2nd PSK bit 2402.        -   Original bit sequences in Gray Coding: 00, 01, 11, 10        -   Counterpart sequences inverting 2nd bit 2402: 01, 00, 10, 11            -   Determining ASK/PSK inversion rule bits:        -   1st bit of ASK part 2403 is 3rd bit of ASK/PSK part        -   2nd bit of PSK 2402 part is 2nd bit of ASK/PSK part    -   Half-plane bits in the PSK part are the first and the second PSK        bit    -   1st bit 2401 of PSK part is chosen as PAO bit to be replaced by        a fixed value 0 or 1, since the second PSK bit has been chosen        for inversion.    -   Determine ASK/PSK inversion rules        -   Inversion rules: Invert only the 2^(nd) 2402, only the            3^(rd) 2403, or both the 2^(nd) and 3^(rd) 2402, 2403            ASK/PSK bit

PAO bit set to 0 PAO bit set to 1 Original ASK/PSK 0000, 0001, 0011,0010, 1100, 1101, 1111, 1110, bit sequences 0100, 0101, 0111, 0110 1000,1001, 1011, 1010 Counterpart ASK/ 0100, 0101, 0111, 0110, 1000, 1001,1011, 1010, PSK sequences 0000, 0001, 0011, 0010 1100, 1101, 1111, 1110inverting 2nd bit Counterpart ASK/ 0010, 0011, 0001, 0000, 1110, 1111,1101, 1100, PSK sequences 0110, 0111, 0101, 0100 1010, 1011, 1001, 1000inverting 3rd bit Counterpart ASK/ 0110, 0111, 0101, 0100, 1010, 1011,1001, 1000, PSK sequences 0010, 0011, 0001, 0000 1110, 1111, 1101, 1100inverting 2nd and 3rd bit

Modulation state 2405 is assigned to bit sequence “0010”. The PSKsub-sequence is “00” and the ASK sub-sequence is “10”. According to therules above, there is one bit, 2402 determined to be inverted from thePSK sub-sequence and one bit, 2403 determined for inversion from the ASKsequence. Consequently there are three counterpart bit sequences. Onlybit 2402 inverted yields “0110”, to which modulation state 2406 isassigned. Only bit 2403 inverted yields “0000”, to which modulationstate 2407 is assigned. Both bits 2402 and 2403 inverted yields “0100”,corresponding to modulation state 2408. If all symbols are combined byadding up the vectors 2411-2414 representing the respective complexvalues, the result is point 2409. If this calculation is done for allpossible value combinations of the bit sequence, it appears that thecombined result is in point 2409 for the fixed value PAO bit of 0 forbit 2401 and point 2410 for the fixed PAO bit value of 1 for bit 2401.Thus ambiguity is completely removed.

A special way of mixed ASK/PSK modulation is the combination of twoorthogonal Gray Coded m-ASK/2-PSK modulations. This mixed constellationis sometimes also called “square QAM”, in the following simply sq-QAM.Instead of treating the two ASK/PSK modulations individually, a moreefficient way is introduced here with reference to FIGS. 27 and 28.

-   -   Separate the sq-QAM into two orthogonal m-ASK/2-PSK modulations,        afterwards called AP1 and AP2 (step 2701).    -   AP1 Inversion rule: The bit to be inverted is the bit that has        the same bit value for the exactly m/2 symbols with the smallest        transmit power of the m-ASK part (step 2702). This is        technically equivalent to the m symbols of the m-ASK/2-PSK with        the smallest transmit power.    -   AP2 Inversion rule: The bit to be inverted is the bit that        carries the 2-PSK part information (step 2703).    -   Determine which bits of the sq-QAM correspond to the separate        AP1 and AP2 inverted bits.    -   Obtain sq-QAM inversion rule by combining both AP1 and AP2        inversion rules for the corresponding QAM bits (step 2704).    -   Select the bit carrying the PSK information of AP1 (i.e. the        half-plane bit) to be the PAO bit, i.e. replaced by a fixed        value (step 2705).    -   Obtain the sq-QAM counterpart sequence by applying the sq-QAM        inversion rule.

It may be noted by those skilled in the art that for AP1 the sameinversion bit may be alternatively identified as the bit that carriesthe same bit value for the exactly m/2 symbols with the highest transmitpowers of the m-ASK part.

It should be noted that for a constellation layout as in the examples ofFIGS. 28 and 31-34, the in-phase component could be chosen to be eitherAP1 or AP2 with the quadrature component being the respective other one.This does not make a difference to the effect of ambiguity reduction. Inone case the combination results have real values, in the other casethey have imaginary values. It may further be noted that in the case ofany square-QAM the selected half-plane bit from AP1 as PAO bit is also ahalf-plane bit of the square QAM; specifically it may be a half-planebit 4201 or 4204 that represents the in-phase or co-phase half-plane4202, 4203, 4205, or 4206, depending on its value, as can be seen inFIG. 42.

Furthermore, two components orthogonal to each other but not parallel toany of the real and imaginary axes could be chosen to be AP1 and AP2,respectively.

EXAMPLE

-   -   Using 16-sq-QAM as in FIG. 28, AP1 is defined as the 2-ASK/2-PSK        in FIG. 29, AP2 as the 2-ASK/2-PSK in FIG. 30.    -   AP1:        -   The bit that carries the same value for the exactly m/2=1            smallest transmit power symbol of the ASK part (2901 or            2902) is the 2nd ASK/PSK bit 2803, which is equal to zero            for those symbols (see FIG. 29)        -   Inversion rule AP1: Invert the 2nd ASK/PSK bit 2803.    -   AP2:        -   The bit that carries the PSK information is the 1st ASK/PSK            bit 2802, which is equal to zero for a phase of 90 degrees            against the real axis and equal to 1 for a phase of 270            degrees against the real axis (see FIG. 30).        -   Inversion rule AP2: Invert the 1st ASK/PSK bit 2802.    -   Correspondence of AP1 and AP2 inversion rule bits to original        QAM bits (see FIG. 28):        -   The 2nd ASK/PSK bit 2803 from AP1 corresponds to the 3rd QAM            bit        -   The 1st ASK/PSK bit 2802 from AP2 corresponds to the 2nd QAM            bit    -   Obtain 16-sq-QAM Inversion rule: Invert both the 2^(nd) and the        3^(rd) sq-QAM bits.    -   Select phase bit 2801 (=half-plane bit) of AP1 (see FIG. 29) as        PAO bit, i.e. to be replaced by a fixed value 0 or 1. This bit        corresponds to the first QAM bit, defining the in-phase        half-plane.    -   Original sq-QAM bit sequences:    -   0000, 0001, 0011, 0010, 0100, 0101, 0111, 0110 or 1100, 1101,        1111, 1110, 1000, 1001, 1011, 1010    -   Counterpart sq-QAM sequence inverting 2nd and 3rd bit:    -   0110, 0111, 0101, 0100, 0010, 0011, 0001, 0000 or 1010, 1011,        1001, 1000, 1110, 1111, 1101, 1100, respectively.

PAO bit set to 0 PAO bit set to 1 Original sq-QAM 0000, 0001, 0011,0010, 1100, 1101, 1111, 1110, bit sequences 0100, 0101, 0111, 0110 1000,1001, 1011, 1010 Counterpart sq- 0110, 0111, 0101, 0100, 1010, 1011,1001, 1000, QAM sequence 0010, 0011, 0001, 0000 1110, 1111, 1101, 1100inverting 2nd and 3rd bit

As an example, the first bit as PAO bit is set to the fixed value “1”.Modulation state 2805 is assigned to bit sequence “1011”. Thecounterpart “1101” is obtained by inverting the second and third bit andis associated with modulation state 2806. Combination of both symbols isaccomplished by adding the vectors 2807 and 2808 representing therespective complex values of the modulation states. The result is point2809. By repeating this calculation for all possible value combinationsof the bit sequence, it appears that all bit sequences with a fixedvalue of 1 for bit 2801 yield a combination result equal to point 2809and all bit sequences with a fixed value of 0 for bit 2801 yield acombination result equal to point 2810. Thus ambiguity is removed inboth cases.

It should be noted that sometimes the term “square QAM” is strictlyapplied only to QAM mappings where the distance between nearestneighbouring points is equal for all points of the constellations.However those skilled in the art will appreciate that the algorithmpresented here is also applicable for QAM mappings where this propertyis valid only for a subset of points. Examples are the non-uniform16-QAM and 64-QAM constellations that are used in DVB, shown in FIGS. 31to 34. In these constellations, the real axis and the imaginary axis aresymmetry axes with respect to the constellation points representingcomplex values of the modulation states. Consequently we use the term“square QAM” here in a broad sense encompassing, but not restricted to,constellation layouts as in FIGS. 28 and 31-34.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that a communication system ordevice may employ different methods to actually realise thedetermination of inversion rules. In one embodiment the inversion rulesare obtained by executing the algorithms described in the presentinvention. In a preferred embodiment the inversion rules are determinedfor each modulation scheme used in the communication system or deviceand are stored in a memory or look-up table for quickly obtaining theinversion rules. In another preferred embodiment the inversion rules arecoded into a hardware or software module, where step 1805 is equivalentto controlling which of those hardware or software modules is chosenduring transmission.

Some of the algorithms will produce more than one counterpart sequenceor inversion rule. This means that for optimum reduction of ambiguitylevels more than one repetition of a bit sequence is necessary, i.e. abit sequence has to be transmitted more than twice. If this is notdesired from a system capacity point of view, then one of thecounterpart sequences/inversion rule has to be chosen. A non-optimumreduction of amplitude ambiguities or removal of phase ambiguities alonemay be considered as sufficient. Consequently a number of counterpartsequences less than the optimum might be sufficient.

The algorithms described so far have assumed that the target is anoptimum reduction of ambiguity levels by combining complex values of thefirst and further pluralities of bits mapped onto modulation states.However it may be desirable or sufficient to define the target as asub-optimum reduction of amplitude ambiguity levels. For example itmight be desirable to reduce the ambiguity to a 4ASK-equivalent level,which means four amplitude levels and one phase level. While a channelestimation for this is generally inferior compared to a situation of asingle resultant complex value, it may be beneficial from a demodulatedLLR value point of view for the data bits transmitted in the pluralitiesof bits, or from the point of view of reducing the loss of transmissioncapacity.

Since the algorithm we have given for ASK results in only one amplitudelevel when considering the exactly 2^(n-1) modulation states with thelowest transmit power in step 2102, with n bits per sequence (compareFIGS. 21 and 22), we can extend the algorithm to any number of targetamplitude levels being a power of two. Let 2^(k) be the target number ofamplitude levels. Then the procedure to find the inversion rule shouldbe:

-   -   Determine bit for inversion, which has the same first value for        the 2^(n-k-1) modulation states with the lowest transmit power        and a value opposite to the first value for the next modulation        state with the next higher transmit power value.        Or as mentioned earlier, alternatively:    -   Determine bit for inversion, which has the same first value for        the 2^(n-k-1) modulation states with the highest transmit power        and a value opposite to the first value for the next modulation        state with the next lower transmit power value.

For k=0 we get the same strategy as mentioned earlier and as in block2102 of FIG. 21. For k=n there is no reduction of amplitude levelspossible. Consequently k can take preferably integer values ranging from0 to n−1.

As an example applying k=1 to the constellation in FIG. 22 where n=3,the two constellation points “011” and “010” have equal bit values b₁=0and b₂=1. However since b₂=1 not only for the two lowest transmit powerpoints, but for the four lowest transmit power points, it does notfulfil the requirement of having “the same first value for the 2^(n-k-1)modulation states with the lowest transmit power and a value opposite tothe first value for the next modulation states with the next highertransmit power value”. Consequently bit b₁ is determined as the bit tobe inverted in the inversion rule.

For PSK modulation schemes, a set of inversion rules is obtained. Bychoosing only a subset of these inversion rules, the ambiguity in phasecan already be reduced. In the example for FIG. 20, an inversion of onlythe first bit results in just two phase levels after combination:Combination of symbol 2001 with 2002 and of symbols 2003 with 2004results in two different points, however both of which are on theimaginary axis, sharing the same phase level. Overall this inversionrule alone results in combinations of two phase levels and two amplitudelevels, equivalent to a 2-ASK/2-PSK. Likewise an inversion of only thethird bit results in a QPSK-equivalent combination. Symbol 2001 combinedwith 2003 results in the same amplitude level as symbol 2002 combinedwith symbol 2004. Altogether an inversion of the third bit only resultsin combinations of one amplitude level and four phase levels.

To remove phase ambiguity completely in these cases, the number ofhalf-plane bits that have to be used as PAO bits with a fixed valuedepends on the number of phase levels that the inversion rules alone canachieve. If the result achieved by the inversion rules comprises twophase levels, then setting one half-plane bit as PAO bit is sufficient.If the result achieved by the inversion rules comprises four phaselevels, then setting two half-plane bits as PAO bits is required.Generally for removal of phase ambiguity the number of required PAO bitsis the dual logarithm (logarithm to the base 2) of the number of phaselevels that results from the used inversion rules. It may be noted thatthe fixed bit value of a first PAO bit and the fixed bit value of asecond PAO bit may be chosen independently. Of course the more PAO bitsare used, the higher the loss of transmission capacity.

Obviously the above strategies for reducing the amplitude or phaselevels for ASK and PSK are also applicable to a mixed ASK/PSK. In theexample of FIG. 38 the 4-ASK part is modified to reduce the number ofamplitude levels from four to one by inverting the first ASK bit. The4-PSK part is not modified, such that altogether the only inversion ruleis the inversion of 4-ASK/4-PSK bit number three, being equivalent to4-ASK bit number one. The combination results in one amplitude and fourphase levels, equivalent to a QPSK.

As an example, vector 3801 represents the constellation point for thebit sequence “0010”. The first ASK bit is the third bit in the sequence.Therefore the inversion rule determines to invert the third bit, whichyields bit sequence “0000” represented by vector 3802. The combinationof both transmissions yields value 3803. Other possible combinationresults for different values of the bit sequence are 3804, 3805 and3806. To completely remove ambiguity, both the first and the second bithave to be set to fixed values. Depending on the combination of thesefixed values, one single of the combination results 3803, 3804, 3805 and3806 is obtained.

For the square-QAM or sq-QAM, a suboptimum reduction of ambiguity levelscan be achieved if either of the AP1 or AP2 inversion rules aremodified. As outlined above, for a combination of one amplitude and twophase levels, the AP1 inversion rule is equivalent to reducingambiguities for an m-ASK part, and the AP2 inversion rule is equivalentto reducing ambiguities for a 2-PSK part. For a suboptimum combinationwith more amplitude levels than one, the reduction for the m-ASK part ofAP1 should follow the extended algorithm as outlined above for reducingn amplitude levels of ASK to 2^(k) amplitude levels. For a suboptimumcombination with more phase levels than two, the AP2 inversion rule forreducing the 2-PSK part should be replaced by the inversion rule forreducing the m-ASK part of AP2 to 2^(k) as outlined in the extendedalgorithm above. It should be mentioned that of course the value of kfor AP1 can be different from the value of k for AP2. For the requirednumber of PAO bits to remove phase ambiguity complete, see theexplanation further above.

In the example of FIG. 39 it is shown that a combination of oneamplitude level and four phase levels is achieved by

-   -   Applying the AP1 inversion rule for the 2-ASK part, inverting        the second bit 2803 of the two AP1 ASK/PSK modulation bits        (compare FIG. 29)    -   Applying the modified AP2 inversion rule for the 2-ASK part,        inverting the second bit 2804 of the two AP2 ASK/PSK modulation        bits (compare FIG. 30)    -   Resultant inversion rule: Invert the third and fourth 16-sq-QAM        bits b₃ and b₄, corresponding to the second bits of AP1 and AP2        respectively.    -   To remove phase ambiguity completely, both half-plane bits b1        and b2 of the 16-QAM have to be set to fixed values.

As an example, bit sequence “0010” is represented by vector 3901. AP1inversion rule determines the third bit b₃ of the bit sequence as bit tobe inverted (being the second bit of b₁ and b₃). AP2 inversion ruledetermines the fourth bit b₄ to be inverted (being the second bit of b₂and b₄). The resulting bit sequence for the second transmission (orre-transmission) is “0001”, represented in the complex plane ofmodulation states by vector 3902. The combination of both modulationstates, achieved by addition of vectors 3901 and 3902, yields complexpoint 3903. Similarly, for bit sequence “0011” represented by vector3904, the bit sequence for the second transmission is “0000” representedby vector 3905. The combination of both values again yields complexvalue 3903. Other possible combination results for other bit sequencesare points 3906, 3907 and 3908. To remove phase ambiguity completely,the half-plane bits (i.e. the first two bits) have to be set to fixedvalues as PAO bits, which would mean selecting one of the four quadrantsas a PAO subset of modulation states to be used in the transmissions.

The original constellation may be different from what is shown in theexamples. However the procedure as outlined above can still be used aslong as the mapping of bit sequences is compliant to the Graycoding/mapping strategy.

As explained above, not all bit sequences in a frame have to use theapproach as disclosed in the present invention. This also applies to thebit manipulation implementation.

In FIG. 35 a transmitter 3500 is illustrated, which can be used totransmit data according to the method described above.

In the transmitter 3500, a bit stream to be transmitted is encoded inencoder 3501. The encoded bit stream is interleaved in random bitinterleaver 3502. In S/P unit 3503, groups of bits are combined into bitsequences (pluralities of bits) which are later represented by onetransmitted symbol. The number of bits to be combined depends on thenumber of modulation states available. For example, for 16-QAM Id 16=4bit are combined into one sequence, for 64-QAM Id 64=6 bit are combinedinto one symbol. In repeater 3504, symbols are repeated forre-transmission. The repetition factor and the ratio of symbols to berepeated is depending on the particular version of the method. This iscontrolled by repetition decider 3505. Inversion bit determining unit3506, which may comprise a memory 3507 for storing a table containingbit inversion information, determines particular bits of repeated bitsequences to be inverted in the selective bit inverter 3508, dependingon the modulation scheme as described above. The bits may be determinedfor inversion based on information received from a peer entity, bycarrying out respective algorithms or by reading stored information froma memory. Inversion bit determining unit 3506 may further comprisesub-units (3509-3512) carrying out sub-steps of the methods fordetermining the sub-set(s) of bits for inversion and sub-steps of themethods for determining the sub-set(s) of bit(s) for replacement as PAObit(s) as described above. Bit inverter unit 3508 may further comprise abit replacement unit to replace PAO bit(s) by a selected fixed value.Transmitter 3500 may further comprise a control data transmitter 3513transmitting information about repetition of bit sequences and aboutinverted bits via the same or another transmission channel.

Mapper 3514 maps symbols, representing one bit sequence each, tomodulation states using a mapping which is invariant at least betweentransmission of a symbol and re-transmission of the same symbol with apart of the bits inverted, like described above.

After the mapping, pilot data is added and frames are combined inPilot/Data frame creation unit 3515 before the information is modulatedonto a carrier in modulator 3516. The modulated signal is sent to areceiving entity via channel 3517.

Depending on the particular implementation, transmitter 3500 maycomprise further units like IF stage, mixers, power amplifier orantenna. From a signal flow point of view, such units might also be seencomprised in channel 3517, as they all may add noise to the signal orexert phase shift or attenuation on the signal.

Units 3501 to 3516 may be implemented in dedicated hardware or in adigital signal processor. In this case the processor performs the methoddescribed herein by executing instructions read from a computer-readablestorage medium like read-only memory, electrically erasable read-onlymemory or flash memory. These instructions may further be stored onother computer-readable media like magnetic disc, optical disc ormagnetic tape to be downloaded into a device before it is brought touse. Also mixed hardware and software implementations are possible.

Obviously the described techniques reduce the data transmissioncapability (capacity) of the transmission channel. Therefore thereceiver has to know how to treat the received original and counterpartdata. This knowledge may for example be obtained by signalling from thetransmitter to the receiver. Preferably some pre-determined patterns aredefined for a communication system, which define the location and methodto which part of the data and in which fashion the described method isapplied. Then it is sufficient to signal a simple parameter that pointsto or represents one of these pre-defined patterns, from which thereceiver can reconstruct the particular method and fashion employed bythe transmitter.

The methods outlined above may for example mean that one or more of thebits transmitted is replaced or punctured. In other words, the originalvalue of such bit(s) is lost to the receiver. Since the receiver, by wayof the method described in the preceding paragraph, may have knowledgeabout which of the bits are affected in such a way, it is able to adaptits output to this situation. The receiver should set the informationfor such affected bits to a value that signifies “unknown”. For exampleif the receiver (demodulator) uses LLR information as the output, an LLRvalue representing “unknown” is 0. If it uses bit probabilities, therespective probability value is 0.5. If hard decision is used, i.e.either just 0 or 1, the receiver may randomly generate a bit value sinceit has no information at all on which it could base the decision for thevalue of said replaced or punctured bit. Preferably a bit that isreplaced or punctured in the transmitter is part of a bit sequence afterFEC encoding, i.e. adding of redundancy. In such a case the replacementor puncturing of a bit merely removes a part of the redundancy, but doesnot automatically introduce a loss of bit information or bit error. Theremaining transmitted redundancy may still be able to compensate forsuch loss of redundancy such that after FEC decoding no bit or blockerror results.

FIG. 45 shows an exemplary structure of a receiver which could be usedto receive data transmitted by transmitter 1300 or 3500. Channelestimation values are provided to LLR calculation unit 4507 to beconsidered for the calculation of the LLR values. Unit 4508 insertsappropriate values (0 for LLR or 0.5 for linear probability) for bitswhich have been punctured or replaced by a fixed value in transmitter1300 or 3500, before all LLR values are subject to repetition combiningin unit 4509. In order to determine, for which bits LLR values have tobe inserted, control data receiver 4510 may receive respectiveinformation from the transmitter. The received data may directly specifythe replaced bits, or it may specify a pre-defined scheme stored forexample in table 4511, from which this information may be derived. Unit4512 uses this information to control unit 4508 accordingly. Optionally,unit 4507 may be controlled to skip calculation of meaningless LLRvalues in order to reduce its calculation requirements.

Transmitter 1300 or 3500 and/or receiver 4500 may be part of a basestation 3600 as shown in FIG. 36. Such a base station may furthercomprise data processing units 3601 and 3602, a core network interface3603 and a corresponding receiver 3604 which may be constructed as shownin FIG. 45.

A counterpart to base station 3600 might be a mobile station 3700 asshown in FIG. 37. Besides transmitter 1300 or 3500 and receiver 3710(optionally constructed as shown in FIG. 45), a mobile station mayfurther comprise antenna 3701, antenna switch 3702, data processing unit3703 and controller 3704.

Mobile station 3700 might be a mobile phone or a module to be integratedinto a portable computer, PDA, vehicle, vending machine or the like. Amobile phone may further comprise mixed signal unit 3705 and a userinterface comprising keyboard 3706, display 3707, speaker 3708 andmicrophone 3709.

A method and a transmitter according to the above described embodimentmay completely remove ambiguity in the combination result ofretransmitted symbols. This may advantageously improve the reliabilityof the channel estimation in a digital communication system. A betterchannel estimation has the advantage of reduced error rates and mayprovide connection with wireless communication systems in areas of weakcoverage, fast fading conditions and other adverse circumstances.

The general and detailed description have shown how data symbols can beused for purposes of e.g. channel estimation. This process is shown in asimplified way again in FIGS. 46 a and 46 b, assuming that the phaseambiguity is reduced to one by fixing a certain bit; this bit is denotedas “pilot bit” in the figures. The pilot bit is multiplexed togetherwith the data bits to generate the original sequence, which isultimately used to generate the original symbol and the at least onecounterpart symbol. In the following it is described what kind of datamay actually be preferably transmitted on such symbols. This is outlinedas most applicable for a mobile radio system scenario; however the sameconsiderations can be applied mutatis mutandis to fixed line or othertypes of communication systems.

For simplicity of the subsequent description, the following terms aredefined:

Original Symbol: A symbol that is generated from an original bitsequence as illustrated in FIG. 46.

Counterpart Symbol(s): At least one symbol that is generated from anoriginal symbol, or from at least one counterpart sequence to anoriginal bit sequence, as illustrated in FIG. 46.

Quasi-Pilot Symbol: The combination of an original symbol and thecorresponding counterpart symbol(s).

Pilot Symbol: A single symbol that can be used as a reference symbol forchannel estimation.

Simple Data Symbol: A single symbol conveying data bits to one or morereceivers.

Simple Control Symbol: A single symbol conveying information that isrequired or helpful for successful system operation.

Generally a simple data symbol may convey any kind of data. This mayinclude control data or signalling data, as well as data pertaining to auser or service application such as voice data, video data, softwaredata etc.

Simple control symbols on the physical layer are generally used forsignalling purposes. For signalling purposes a lot of information needsto be transmitted between the network and the terminals. Thisinformation includes signalling messages generated above the physicallayer, as well as the required physical layer control channels neededfor system operation but not necessarily visible for higher layerfunctionality. This kind of information is usually transmitted as simplecontrol symbols.

The following channels are explained for their use in relation to theUMTS network. Other networks may use different names, however regardlessof the name there will exist some data that fulfils the same or similarfunctionalities as those described here. Therefore the descriptionshould be understood as to be not restricting only to a UMTS system orthe given names of channels.

A synchronisation channel is needed for the cell search. By means ofthis channel frame and slot synchronisation is obtained, as well asinformation on the group the cell belongs to.

A broadcast channel is used to transmit information specific to thenetwork or for a given cell. The most typical data needed in everynetwork is the available random access codes and access slots in thecell, or the types of transmit diversity methods used with otherchannels for that cell. As the terminal cannot register to the cellwithout the possibility of decoding the broadcast channel, this channelis needed for transmission with relatively high reliability in order toreach all the users within the intended coverage area.

A forward access channel carries control information to terminals knownto locate in the given cell, for example after a random access messagehas been received by the base station. It may also be used to transportpacket data to a terminal.

A paging channel carries data relevant for the paging procedure, that iswhen the network wants to initiate communication with the terminal. Asimple example is a speech call to a terminal; the network transmits thepaging message to the terminal in those cells belonging to the locationarea that the terminal is expected to be in.

A random access channel is intended to be used to carry controlinformation from the terminal to the network. It is typically used forsignalling purposes, to register the terminal after power-on to thenetwork, or to perform location update after moving from one location toanother, or to initiate a call. For proper system operation the randomaccess channel must be heard from the whole desired cell coverage area,which requires a relatively high reliability of the transmitted data.

An acquisition indicator channel is used to indicate from the basestation the reception of the random access channel signature sequence.Therefore it needs to be heard by all terminals in the cell, whichrequires a relatively high reliability of the transmitted data. Thischannel commonly is not visible to higher layers.

A paging indicator channel operates together with a paging channel toprovide terminals with efficient sleep mode operation. Consequently thischannel has to be heard by all terminals in the cell, which requires arelatively high reliability of the transmitted data.

A shared control channel carries necessary physical layer controlinformation to enable reception/demodulation/decoding of data on ashared data channel, and to perform possible physical layer combining ofthe data sent on a shared data channel in case of retransmission or anerroneous data packet

A dedicated physical control channel may furthermore carry necessarycontrol information containing feedback signals, such as ARQacknowledgements (both positive ACK and negative NAK), as well as linkquality information (such as a channel quality indicator CQI).

A shared control channel may contain information detailing one or moreof the following items:

-   -   Information about one or more of a spreading code, time        instant(s), frequency (sub-)carriers that is used for data        transmission    -   Modulation scheme used for data transmission, e.g. BPSK, QPSK,        8-PSK, 16-QAM, 64-QAM, etc.    -   Redundancy version of the data block in case of ARQ with        multiple redundancy versions, i.e. so-called “incremental        redundancy”    -   ARQ process number in case several ARQ processes can exist in        parallel    -   First transmission/retransmission indicator, indicating whether        a receiver should combine the actual received data with        previously received data, or whether buffers should be flushed        and filled only with new data    -   Channel coding (FEC) type and rate

It may be advantageous in a communication to reduce the correlationbetween different signals in a communication system to reduce theinterference. In case of a correlation reduction to zero this process issometimes called “orthogonalization”. Orthogonalization may for examplebe achieved by spreading or multiplication with orthogonal sequences,e.g. OVSF sequences that result from a Walsh-Hadamard matrix. Apossibility to reduce the correlation is scrambling or multiplicationwith non-orthogonal sequences such as pseudo-noise sequences, e.g. Goldsequences.

Orthogonalization or correlation reduction techniques may also beapplied to the present invention. This can be accomplished by applyingthe symbol-based orthogonalization or correlation reduction techniquesjointly to the Quasi-Pilot Symbol, or by applying these techniquesindividually to each of the original and counterpart quasi-pilotsymbol(s). This is shown for the multiplication with a spreading code inFIGS. 57-58.

Alternatively in case of bit-based orthogonalization or correlationreduction techniques, these are applied to the original and counterpartsequence(s) identically, or individually to each of the original andcounterpart bit sequence(s).

Of course the quasi-pilot components may also be spread by bandwidthexpansion. Again this spreading may be done based on the constituentcomponents individually, or jointly based on the quasi-pilot symbol.FIGS. 59-60 show an example of bandwidth spreading with a spreadingcode.

Additionally it may be beneficial in a system to modify the quasi-pilotsymbols prior to transmission, for example by multiplication with aconstant phase term. For carrier tracking reasons it may be desirablethat neither the real part nor the imaginary part of a quasi-pilotsymbol is zero. If however the design of the quasi-pilot is such that aquasi-pilot symbol lies on one of the orthogonal axes, the quasi-pilotsymbol may be shifted in phase. Evidently a phase shift of a quasi-pilotsymbol is equivalent to a phase shift of the original and correspondingcounterpart symbol(s). Even though FIG. 61 shows the principle for aconstant phase shift applied to all quasi-pilot symbols, those skilledin the art will recognise that the shift may vary from symbol to symbol.

FIG. 47 shows a simple case where the ratio of pilot symbols to sharedcontrol symbols is one, i.e. the number of such symbols per frame isidentical. Therefore it is easy to combine each one pilot symbol witheach one control symbol to one quasi-pilot symbol. However in a systemit is possible that the said ratio is not equal to one. One solution isthat just as many quasi-pilot symbols are constructed as there are bothpilot and control symbols. For example if there are n pilot symbols andm control symbols, then min(n,m) quasi-pilot symbols may be generated,and additionally either n-m pilot symbols or m-n control symbols aretransmitted as simple symbols according to prior art schemes.

If the transmission using quasi-pilots requires a modulation scheme thatconveys at least two bits per symbol, it may occur that the data thatpertains to the same transport channel (e.g. shared control channel)cannot be completely mapped onto quasi-pilot symbols. Generally theexcess data may be transmitted using a modulation scheme that isindependent from the quasi-pilot modulation scheme, as shown in FIG. 65.From a uniform design point of view however it may be preferable totransmit such a transport channel using a single modulation scheme. Insuch a case it may be preferable to either reduce the number of symbols,or optionally to repeat some of the non-quasi-pilot symbols to fill outthe available bandwidth, as shown in FIG. 66.

For timing reasons it may be preferable to transmit control orsignalling data within the first time slot(s) of a frame. Particularlyfor shared data channels or other channels which transmit user data atleast partially in a time-multiplexed fashion, it may be preferable froma timing point of view to transmit a control channel well in advance tothe corresponding data channel to which the control data pertains, inorder to allow a receiver time to process the control data and take therequired actions for proper reception of the data information. This isparticularly applicable for shared control and data channels. An examplefor a conventional solution is given in FIG. 47 for an OFDM system. AnOFDM frame consists of several time slots, in this case 7 “OFDMSymbols”, and of several carrier frequencies, here 8 “subcarriers”. Thepilot and shared control symbols are frequency-multiplexed inside thefirst OFDM symbol; both together are time-multiplexed with the shareddata symbols.

A corresponding solution according to the present invention is shown inFIG. 48. This Figure shows a time-multiplexing of quasi-pilot symbolswith shared data symbols. The quasi-pilot symbols contain themultiplexing of pilot bits and shared control bits according to FIG. 46.Since in this case a quasi-pilot symbol, i.e. an original andcounterpart symbol carry shared control information, one quasi-pilotsymbol can be used for channel estimation, and each of the constituent(original and counterpart) symbols carries the shared controlinformation. As pilot and control information are multiplexed ultimatelyonto modulation symbols, this can be interpreted as a “modulationmultiplexing” or “modulation division multiplexing” (MDM) of pilot andcontrol information onto the same symbol. The multiplexing of originaland counterpart symbols is according to FIG. 48 in frequency-domain,therefore it is called “frequency counterpart multiplexing” (FCM). Insummary the first OFDM symbol is therefore an FCM-MDM structure.

The multiplexing of original and counterpart symbols could however alsobe realised in time domain, as shown in FIG. 49. Here we have a TCM-MDMstructure, “time counterpart multiplexing-modulation divisionmultiplexing”, where as before the quasi-pilot and shared data part istime multiplexed.

FIG. 50 and FIG. 51 show a similar approach however here the quasi-pilotand shared data symbols are frequency-multiplexed.

Of course neither the multiplexing between quasi-pilot and shared datanor the multiplexing of original/counterpart has to be the same withinone OFDM frame. Examples are shown in FIGS. 52-56, where there variousdegrees of freedom are realised with respect to quasi-pilot/shared datamultiplexing and original/counterpart multiplexing.

It should be apparent to those skilled in the art that the order oforiginal and counterpart symbol in FIGS. 48-56 is not important; forexample in FIG. 49 the first OFDM symbol may always transmit thecounterpart symbol, while the second OFDM symbol always transmits theoriginal symbol. Mixed forms are of course also possible.

Apart from a complex combination, e.g. the addition of complex values,of original and counterpart symbol, it is also possible to combine otherparameters or components of these symbols to improve the reliability ofthe channel estimation by reducing the number of parameter/componentstates/levels after combination compared to the number ofparameter/component states/levels before combination. Such parameters orcomponents of a symbol are for example the real part, imaginary part,power, amplitude, phase, or terms or quantities derived from one or moreof these.

In another embodiment of the invention, the target of improving thechannel estimation capability is achieved by reducing the number ofpossible amplitude levels, achieved by reducing the number of differentcombined values obtainable for all data word values, by adding for eachdata word value amplitude values associated with said data word valueaccording to a first and at least one further mappings, to a lowernumber than the number of amplitude levels within said first mapping.

In another embodiment of the invention, the target of improving thechannel estimation capability is achieved by reducing the number ofpossible power levels, achieved by reducing the number of differentcombined values obtainable for all data word values, by adding for eachdata word value power values associated with said data word valueaccording to a first and at least one further mappings, to a lowernumber than the number of different power levels within said firstmapping.

In another embodiment of the invention, the target of improving thechannel estimation capability is achieved by reducing the number ofpossible phase levels, achieved by reducing the number of differentcombined values obtainable for all data word values, by adding for eachdata word value phase values associated with said data word valueaccording to a first and at least one further mappings, to a lowernumber than the number of different phase levels within said firstmapping.

For each of the mentioned level reductions, or for a combination of anyof the above mentioned level reductions counterpart symbol(s) orsequence(s) can be easily generated applying the principles that havebeen outlined for the coherent combination case mutatis mutandis. Thegeneral principle is shown as flowcharts in FIGS. 67-69. As shown inFIG. 67, a method to obtain one or more counterpart constellation(s)from an original constellation when a power combination is consideredincludes the operations of determining power levels of all symbols forthe original constellation (6701), determining target power level(s)after a power combination of original and counterpart symbol(s) (6702),determining a power level for each symbol of the original constellation(6703), for each symbol of the original constellation, determining powerlevel(s) for the counterpart constellation(s) such that the combinationof the power of the symbol in the original constellation with the powerof the symbol in the counterpart constellation(s) results in one of thetarget power level(s) (6704), and determining counterpartconstellation(s) such that for each symbol the respective power in therespective counterpart constellation is achieved (6705). As shown inFIG. 68, a method to obtain one or more counterpart constellation(s)from an original constellation when amplitude combination is consideredincludes the operations of determining amplitude levels of all symbolsfor the original constellation (6801), determining the target amplitudelevel(s) after the amplitude combination of original and counterpartsymbol(s) (6802), determining the amplitude level for each symbol of theoriginal constellation (6803), for each symbol of the originalconstellation, determining the amplitude level(s) for the counterpartconstellation(s) such that the combination of the amplitude of thesymbol in the original constellation with the amplitude of the symbol inthe counterpart constellation(s) results in one of the target amplitudelevel(s) (6804), and determining the counterpart constellation(s) suchthat for each symbol the respective amplitude in the respectivecounterpart constellation is achieved (6805). As shown in FIG. 69, amethod to obtain one or more counterpart constellation(s) from anoriginal constellation when phase combination is considered includes theoperations of determining phase levels of all symbols for the originalconstellation (6901), determining target phase level(s) after a phasecombination of original and counterpart symbol(s) (6902), determining aphase level for each symbol of the original constellation (6903), foreach symbol of the original constellation, determining the phase levels)for the counterpart constellation(s) such that the combination of thephase of the symbol in the original constellation with the phase of thesymbol in the counterpart constellation(s) results in one of the targetphase level(s) (6904), and determining counterpart constellation(s) suchthat for each symbol the respective phase in the respective counterpartconstellation is achieved (6905). Of course, if a combination of levelreductions is desired, the step of determining the counterpartconstellation can only be carried out taking the combined requirementsinto account. If both power and phase levels should be reduced, the stepof determining the counterpart constellation has to be modified to suchthat for each symbol the respective power and phase in the respectivecounterpart constellation is achieved”. It should also be apparent thatthe order of these steps may be changed. For example if both power andphase levels should be reduced to one and two respectively, FIGS. 62-64show exemplary solutions for QPSK, 8-PSK, and 16-QAM respectively. Itshould be noted that in this and in the following sections the terms“original constellation”, “counterpart constellation” are used todescribe the behaviour on the symbol level, and are therefore notrestricting the applicability to just one of the approaches for thegeneration of a Quasi-Pilot according to FIG. 46.

Applying the flowcharts from FIGS. 67 and 69 to the original QPSK fromFIG. 62, assuming that the average power should be one, the followingpower and phase levels are determined:

Bit sequence Power Level Phase Level (deg) 00 1 45 01 1 −45 10 1 135 111 −135

Obviously achieving a single power level after combination is trivial.Then it is defined that the bit sequences should have a target phaselevel after combination of 0. This leads in the last step to thefollowing for the counterpart constellation:

Bit sequence Power Level Phase Level (deg) 00 1 −45 01 1 +45 10 1 −13511 1 135

This is depicted as the counterpart constellation in FIG. 62. It may benoted that in this example the same effective result may be achieved byinverting the second bit from the original bit sequence to obtain thecounterpart sequence, and then use the original constellation to obtaina counterpart symbol from the counterpart sequence. Those skilled in theart will recognise that the bit operation approach is generally apossible alternative to the modified constellation.

Applying the flowcharts from FIGS. 67 and 69 to the original 8-PSK fromFIG. 63, assuming that the average power should be one, we determine thefollowing power and phase levels:

Symbol Power Level Phase Level (deg) 1 1 67.5 2 1 22.5 3 1 −22.5 4 1−67.5 5 1 −112.5 6 1 −157.5 7 1 157.5 8 1 112.5

Again achieving a single power level after combination is trivial. Thenit is defined that the symbols should have a target phase level aftercombination of 0. This leads in the last step to the following for thecounterpart constellation:

Symbol Power Level Phase Level (deg) 1 1 −67.5 2 1 −22.5 3 1 22.5 4 167.5 5 1 112.5 6 1 157.5 7 1 −157.5 8 1 −112.5

This is depicted as the counterpart constellation in FIG. 63. If thesymbol numbers are translated into bit sequences, those skilled in theart will be easily able to apply a bit operation to achieve the sameresult.

Applying the flowcharts from FIGS. 67 and 69 to the original 16-QAM fromFIG. 64, assuming that the average power should be one, we determine thefollowing power and phase levels:

Symbol Power Level Phase Level (deg) 1 0.2 45 2 1.0 arctan(1/3) 3 1.0arctan(3) 4 1.8 45 5 0.2 −45 6 1.0 −arctan(1/3) 7 1.0 −arctan(3) 8 1.8−45 9 0.2 135 10 1.0 90 + arctan(3) 11 1.0 90 + arctan(1/3) 12 1.8 13513 0.2 −135 14 1.0 −90 − arctan(3) 15 1.0 −90 − arctan(1/3) 16 1.8 −135

The unique target power level after combination is set to 2.0. Then itis defined that the symbols should have a target phase level aftercombination of 0. This leads in the last step to the following for thecounterpart constellation:

Symbol Power Level Phase Level (deg) 1 1.8 −45 2 1.0 −arctan(1/3) 3 1.0−arctan(3) 4 0.2 −45 5 1.8 45 6 1.0 arctan(1/3) 7 1.0 arctan(3) 8 0.2 459 1.8 −135 10 1.0 −90 − arctan(3) 11 1.0 −90 − arctan(1/3) 12 0.2 −13513 1.8 135 14 1.0 90 + arctan(3) 15 1.0 90 + arctan(1/3) 16 0.2 135

This is depictured as the counterpart constellation in FIG. 64. If thesymbol numbers are translated into bit sequences, those skilled in theart will be easily able to apply a bit operation to achieve the sameresult.

Upon inspection of FIGS. 62 to 64 it is noted therefore that these aresufficient to reduce the number of either power or amplitude, and ofphase levels to one after combination of original and counterpart if thecombination is done separately for power/amplitude and phaserespectively.

The actual estimation of a channel coefficient h in such a case maypreferably employ the following strategy. Assume that the power levelsof a symbol from an original and counterpart constellation is denoted byp_(O) and p_(C) respectively, and likewise the amplitude levels by a_(O)and a_(C), and the phase levels by φ_(O) and φ_(C). Assuming that achannel coefficient h can be decomposed into an amplitude gain k and aphase shift δ as inh=k·e ^(j·δ)then the following characteristics for the received power, amplitude andphase levels (neglecting other channel influences) are obtained:p _(O) ^(r) =p _(O) ·k ² , p _(C) ^(r) =p _(C) ·k ²,a _(O) ^(r) =a _(O) ·k, a _(C) ^(r) =a _(C) ·k,φ_(O) ^(r)=φ_(O)+δ, φ_(C) ^(r)=φ_(C)+δ

By adding the received values, we can obtain:p _(O) ^(r) +p _(C) ^(r) =p _(O) ·k ² +p _(C) ·k ²=(p _(O) +p _(C))·k ²a _(O) ^(r) +a _(C) ^(r) =a _(O) ·k+a _(C) ·k=(a _(O) +a _(C))·kφ_(O) ^(r)+φ_(C) ^(r)=φ_(O)+δ+φ_(C)+δ=φ_(O)φ_(C)+2δ

Therefore the channel amplitude gain k and the phase shift δ can beestimated as

$\hat{k} = {{\sqrt{\frac{p_{O}^{r} + p_{C}^{r}}{p_{O} + p_{C}}}\mspace{14mu}{or}\mspace{14mu}\hat{k}} = \frac{a_{O}^{r} + a_{C}^{r}}{a_{O} + a_{C}}}$$\hat{\delta} = {\frac{\varphi_{O}^{r} + \varphi_{C}^{r}}{2} - \frac{\varphi_{O} + \varphi_{C}}{2}}$

It may be noted that these equations are given for the simple case thatone original symbol and one counterpart symbol are sufficient. In casethere exist several counterpart constellation that are used, thedenominator in the channel amplitude gain equation has to account forthe sum of all these counterpart constellations instead of just thesingle one; likewise the denominator in the channel phase shift equationhas to be the number of counterpart constellations plus one (for theoriginal constellation).

To inspect the power, amplitude, and phase levels in some more detailthan in Table 1, Table 2 lists the actual levels assuming that eachconstellation is normalised to an average power per symbol of one.

TABLE 2 Power, amplitude, and phase levels of selected digitalmodulation methods Modulation Scheme Power Levels Amplitude Levels PhaseLevels (deg) BPSK 1 1 0; 180 QPSK 1 1 45; 135; −45; −135 2-ASK/2-PSK0.2; 1.8 sqrt(1/5); sqrt(9/5) 0; 180 4-ASK 1/21; 9/21; 25/21;sqrt(1/21); sqrt(9/21); 0 49/21 sqrt(25/21); sqrt(49/21) 8-PSK 1 1 22.5;67.5; 112.5; 157.5; −22.5; −67.5; −112.5; −157.5 16-PSK 1 1 11.25;33.75; 56.25; 78.75; 101.25; 123.75; 146.25; 168.75; −11.25; −33.75;−56.25; −78.75; −101.25; −123.75; −146.25; −168.75 4-ASK/4-PSK 1/21;9/21; 25/21; sqrt(1/21); sqrt(9/21); 45; 135; −45; −135 49/21sqrt(25/21); sqrt(49/21) 16-QAM 0.2; 1.0; 1.8 sqrt(1/5); 1.0;arctan(1/3); 45; sqrt(9/5) arctan(3); 90 + arctan(1/3); 135; 90 +arctan(3); −arctan(1/3); −45; −arctan(3); −90 − arctan(1/3); −135; −90 −arctan(3)

This will be subsequently exemplified for the 16-QAM depicted in FIG.64. With Table 2 and FIG. 64 we see that for any of the 16 symbols thesum is in this case alwaysp _(O) +p _(C)=2,φ_(O)+φ_(C)=0(or equivalently φ_(O)+φ_(C)=2ρ=360°, depending on the angleinterpretation). Using the values for this 16-QAM example, we get

$\hat{k} = \sqrt{\frac{p_{O}^{r} + p_{C}^{r}}{2}}$$\hat{\delta} = \frac{\varphi_{O}^{r} + \varphi_{C}^{r}}{2}$

For the examples of QPSK and 8-PSK in FIGS. 62 and 63, it is noted thatboth the sum of power levels and of amplitude levels isp _(O) +p _(C) =a _(O) +a _(C)=2,therefore one may use either of the amplitude or power level combinationto arrive at the estimation for the channel amplitude gain k. This ispossible for any pure PSK scheme. From Table 2 it may also be concludedthat for pure ASK schemes the amplitude levels are preferable, since theconstellations can easily be constructed such that a single counterpartconstellation is sufficient to reduce the combination to a singleamplitude level. Since a mix of ASK and PSK (like 2-ASK/2-PSK or4-ASK/4-PSK) has to respect the preferences (or restrictions) of eachconstituent scheme, the amplitude level combination is also preferablein those cases, as the ASK prefers amplitude level combination to powerlevel combination due to just a single required counterpartconstellation.

This is further exemplified for the 4-ASK/4-PSK in FIG. 70. For sake ofgenerality each constellation point is labelled with a bit sequence(numeric) as well as with a symbol label (alphabetic). Applying theflowcharts from FIGS. 68 and 69 to the original 4-ASK/4-PSK, assumingthat the average power should be one, we determine the followingamplitude and phase levels:

Bit sequence/Symbol Amplitude Level Phase Level (deg) 0000/A sqrt(1/21)= 1/sqrt(21) 45 0001/B sqrt(9/21) = 3/sqrt(21) 45 0010/C sqrt(49/21) =7/sqrt(21) 45 0011/D sqrt(25/21) = 5/sqrt(21) 45 0100/E sqrt(1/21) =1/sqrt(21) 135 0101/F sqrt(9/21) = 3/sqrt(21) 135 0110/G sqrt(49/21) =7/sqrt(21) 135 0111/H sqrt(25/21) = 5/sqrt(21) 135 1000/J sqrt(1/21) =1/sqrt(21) −45 1001/K sqrt(9/21) = 3/sqrt(21) −45 1010/L sqrt(49/21) =7/sqrt(21) −45 1011/M sqrt(25/21) = 5/sqrt(21) −45 1100/N sqrt(1/21) =1/sqrt(21) −135 1101/O sqrt(9/21) = 3/sqrt(21) −135 1110/P sqrt(49/21) =7/sqrt(21) −135 1111/Q sqrt(25/21) = 5/sqrt(21) −135

The unique target amplitude level after combination is set to8/sqrt(21). Then we define the target phase level after combination of0. This leads in the last step to the following for the counterpartconstellation:

Bit sequence/Symbol Amplitude Level Phase Level (deg) 0000/A sqrt(49/21)= 7/sqrt(21) −45 0001/B sqrt(25/21) = 5/sqrt(21) −45 0010/C sqrt(1/21) =1/sqrt(21) −45 0011/D sqrt(9/21) = 3/sqrt(21) −45 0100/E sqrt(49/21) =7/sqrt(21) −135 0101/F sqrt(25/21) = 5/sqrt(21) −135 0110/G sqrt(1/21) =1/sqrt(21) −135 0111/H sqrt(9/21) = 3/sqrt(21) −135 1000/J sqrt(49/21) =7/sqrt(21) 45 1001/K sqrt(25/21) = 5/sqrt(21) 45 1010/L sqrt(1/21) =1/sqrt(21) 45 1011/M sqrt(9/21) = 3/sqrt(21) 45 1100/N sqrt(49/21) =7/sqrt(21) 135 1101/O sqrt(25/21) = 5/sqrt(21) 135 1110/P sqrt(1/21) =1/sqrt(21) 135 1111/Q sqrt(9/21) = 3/sqrt(21) 135

This is depicted as the counterpart constellation in FIG. 70. It may benoted that in this example the same effective result may be achieved byinverting the first and third bits from the original bit sequence toobtain the counterpart sequence, and then use the original constellationto obtain a counterpart symbol from the counterpart sequence.

The effect to arrive at the counterpart constellation may again beeither achieved by modifying the mapping rule between bit sequence tomodulation state, or by modifying the original bit sequence into acounterpart sequence prior to mapping said counterpart sequence to amodulation state according to the mapping rule that is used also for theoriginal bit sequence mapping.

It may be noted that in the case of power or amplitude or phasecombining a single counterpart constellation can be constructed that isalways sufficient to achieve the goal of power/amplitude/phase levelreduction, provided that the counterpart constellation does not have tohave the same layout in the complex plane as the original constellation;such a different layout can for example be seen comparing the right-handand left-hand constellations in FIG. 6.

It may be noted that the described possibilities of using thequasi-pilot for data transmission, in particular for the type of datae.g. control data, signalling data, broadcast data etc., are applicableregardless of the method how the reduction of ambiguity levels for thequasi-pilot is achieved. Therefore it is also preferable to transmit forexample a shared control channel using a quasi-pilot like in FIGS. 48-56in case that the quasi-pilot has been generated using e.g. the power-and phase-combination method. Those skilled in the art will perceivethat there is no fundamental difference of what kind of data can betransmitted in a quasi-pilot generated using the complex-combinationmethod compared to using one or more of thepower-/amplitude-/phase-combination method(s).

While the invention has been described with respect to the embodimentsconstructed in accordance therewith, it will be apparent to thoseskilled in the art that various modifications, variations andimprovements of the present invention may be made in the light of theabove teachings and within the purview of the appended claims withoutdeparting from the spirit and intended scope of the invention. Inaddition, those areas in which it is believed that those of ordinaryskill in the art are familiar, have not been described herein in orderto not unnecessarily obscure the invention described herein.Accordingly, it is to be understood that the invention is not to belimited by the specific illustrative embodiments, but only by the scopeof the appended claims.

1. A method for transmitting data in a digital communication system, themethod comprising: a) selecting a subset of all available modulationstates in a pre-determined modulation scheme, to be used fortransmission; b) a first transmission step of transmitting a firstsymbol representing a first plurality of bits, the first symbol having afirst modulation state comprised in said subset; and c) at least onefurther transmission step of transmitting further symbols representingthe first plurality of bits, each of the further symbols having afurther modulation state comprised in said subset, wherein addition, foreach combination of bit values, of complex values associated with saidfirst and said further modulation states, yields the same phase of acomplex result for all combinations of values of the bits within theplurality of bits, and wherein: the first modulation state is obtainedaccording to a first mapping of bit value combinations to modulationstates; the at least one further transmission step comprises exactly onefurther transmission step; and the one further modulation state isobtained according to a second mapping of bit value combinations tomodulation states; wherein the second mapping of bit value combinationsto modulation states is obtained from the first mapping of bit valuecombinations to modulation states by: i. dividing a complex planerepresenting the first mapping of bit value combinations to modulationstates into at least two non-overlapping adjacent sub-planes; ii.determining symmetry axes for at least a part of the sub-planes withrespect to modulation states comprised within each of the part of thesub-planes; and iii. assigning to at least a part of the bit valuecombinations a complex value in said second mapping, having a positionin the complex plane which is essentially mirrored from a position of acomplex value assigned to said bit value combination according to afirst assignment, with respect to a point on the symmetry axis of asub-plane in which the complex value according to said first assignmentis located; and wherein the subset of modulation states to be used forthe transmissions comprises all modulation states within one of the atleast two sub-planes.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the addition,for each combination of bit values, of complex values associated withsaid first and said further modulation states, yields the same resultfor all combinations of values of the bits within the plurality of bits.3. The method according to claim 1, wherein in step iii the point on thesymmetry axis, serving as a center for mirroring, is an average of allcomplex values assigned to said at least part of the modulation statesin the first assignment and located within said sub-plane.
 4. The methodaccording to claim 1, wherein said complex plane is divided into saidsub-planes with respect to symmetry axes regarding positions of thecomplex values of all modulation-states comprised in the first mapping.5. The method according to claim 1, wherein said complex plane isdivided into said sub-planes such that no complex values of modulationstates are located on border lines between sub-planes.
 6. The methodaccording to claim 1, wherein said non-overlapping adjacent sub-planesare half planes of the complex plane.
 7. The method according to claim1, wherein said transmitting steps are carried out subsequently on asame transmission channel.
 8. The method according to claim 1, whereinsaid digital communication system comprises at least one of atime-division, frequency-division, code-division, or OFDM component, andsaid transmitting steps are carried out in adjacent instances withrespect to at least one of said components.
 9. The method according toclaim 1, wherein said transmission steps are applied to each transmittedsymbol.
 10. The method according to claim 1, wherein said second andfurther transmission steps are applied to a defined number of datasymbols per transmission frame.
 11. The method according to claim 1,wherein the number of sub-planes equals
 2. 12. A computer-readablestorage medium having stored thereon program instructions that, whenexecuted in a processor of a transmitter of a digital communicationsystem, cause the transmitter to perform the method according toclaim
 1. 13. A transmitter for a digital communication system, thetransmitter being configured to perform the method of claim
 1. 14. Abase station for a mobile communication system, the base stationcomprising the transmitter according to claim
 13. 15. A mobile stationfor a mobile communication system, the mobile station comprising thetransmitter according to claim
 13. 16. A method for transmitting data ina digital communication system, the method comprising: a) selecting asubset of all available modulation states in a pre-determined modulationscheme, to be used for transmission; b) a first transmission step oftransmitting a first symbol representing a first plurality of bits, thefirst symbol having a first modulation state comprised in said subset;and c) at least one further transmission step of transmitting furthersymbols representing the first plurality of bits, each of the furthersymbols having a further modulation state comprised in said subset,wherein: addition, for each combination of bit values, of complex valuesassociated with said first and said further modulation states, yieldsthe same phase of a complex result for all combinations of values of thebits within the plurality of bits, and wherein: the first modulationstate is obtained according to a first mapping of bit value combinationsto modulation states; the at least one further transmission stepcomprises m−1 transmission steps; and the m−1 further modulation statesare obtained according to m−1 further mappings of bit value combinationsto modulation states, wherein the m−1 further mappings of bit valuecombinations to modulation states are obtained from the first mapping ofbit value combinations to modulation states by: i. dividing a complexplane representing the first mapping of bit value combinations tomodulation states into at least two non-overlapping adjacent sub-planes,the number of modulation states within at least a part of the sub-planesbeing m; and ii. assigning to at least a part of the bit valuecombinations different modulation states within the same sub-plane, onefor each mapping; and wherein the subset of modulation states to be usedfor the transmissions comprises all modulation states within one of theat least two sub-planes.
 17. A method for transmitting data in a digitalcommunication system, the method comprising: a) selecting a subset ofall available modulation states in a pre-determined modulation scheme,to be used for transmission; b) a first transmission step oftransmitting a first symbol representing a first plurality of bits, thefirst symbol having a first modulation state comprised in said subset;and c) at least one further transmission step of transmitting furthersymbols representing the first plurality of bits, each of the furthersymbols having a further modulation state comprised in said subset,wherein: addition, for each combination of bit values, of complex valuesassociated with said first and said further modulation states, yieldsthe same phase of a complex result for all combinations of values of thebits within the plurality of bits, the method is applied in a digitalcommunication system employing phase-shift key modulation, and wherein:the first modulation state is obtained according to a first mapping ofbit value combinations to modulation states; the at least one furthertransmission step comprises exactly one further transmission step; andthe one further modulation state is obtained according to a secondmapping of bit value combinations to modulation states; wherein thesecond mapping of bit value combinations to modulation states isobtained from the first mapping of bit value combinations to modulationstates by: i. dividing a complex plane representing the first mapping ofbit value combinations to modulation states into non-overlappingadjacent sub-planes, at least a part of the sub-planes having a symmetryaxis with respect to positions of all modulation states comprised in thesub-plane; ii. determining symmetry axes for at least a part of thesub-planes with respect to modulation states comprised within each ofthe part of the sub-planes; and iii. assigning to each of at least apart of the bit value combinations a complex value in said secondmapping, having a position in the complex plane which is approximatelymirrored from a position of a modulation state assigned to said bitvalue combination according to said first mapping, with respect to thesymmetry axis of a sub-plane in which the modulation state according tosaid first mapping is located; and wherein the subset of modulationstates to be used for the transmissions comprises all modulation stateswithin one of the at least two sub-planes.
 18. A method for transmittingdata in a digital communication system, the method comprising: a)selecting a subset of all available modulation states in apre-determined modulation scheme, to be used for transmission; b) afirst transmission step of transmitting a first symbol representing afirst plurality of bits, the first symbol having a first modulationstate comprised in said subset; and c) at least one further transmissionstep of transmitting further symbols representing the first plurality ofbits, each of the further symbols having a further modulation statecomprised in said subset, wherein: addition, for each combination of bitvalues, of complex values associated with said first and said furthermodulation states, yields the same phase of a complex result for allcombinations of values of the bits within the plurality of bits, andwherein a first mapping and at least one further mapping are obtainedfrom a common super-mapping by pre-pending a leading control word to adata word, wherein the super mapping maps concatenated values of thecontrol word and the data word to modulation states, and eachtransmission is associated with a specific value of the control word.19. A method for transmitting data in a digital communication system,the method comprising: a) selecting a subset of all available modulationstates in a pre-determined modulation scheme, to be used fortransmission; b) a first transmission step of transmitting a firstsymbol representing a first plurality of bits, the first symbol having afirst modulation state comprised in said subset; and c) at least onefurther transmission step of transmitting further symbols representingthe first plurality of bits, each of the further symbols having afurther modulation state comprised in said subset, wherein: addition,for each combination of bit values, of complex values associated withsaid first and said further modulation states, yields the same phase ofa complex result for all combinations of values of the bits within theplurality of bits, and wherein: step a) further comprises replacing atleast one bit out of the first plurality of bits by a fixed value toobtain a second plurality of bits; step b) further comprises mapping thesecond plurality of bits to the first symbol having the first modulationstate according to a pre-defined mapping of bit sequences to modulationstates; and step c) further comprises inverting bits of at least onesubset of said second plurality of bits and keeping bits not comprisedwithin said subset unchanged, to obtain at least one further pluralityof bits and mapping said at least one further plurality of bits to theat least one further symbol having the at least one further modulationstate according to said pre-defined mapping of bit sequences tomodulation states.
 20. The method of claim 19, wherein in step a) onebit out of the first plurality of bits is replaced by a fixed value toobtain a second plurality of bits, such that all modulation states thatcan be generated in step b) from said second plurality of bits liewithin one half-plane of the complex plane representing said modulationstates by their associated complex values.
 21. The method of claim 19,wherein step c) further comprises inverting all bits comprised within asubset of said second plurality of bits, said subset being a subset ofthe set of combinations from one to all but one of said second pluralityof bits; and step a) further comprises replacing said one bit out of thefirst plurality of bits corresponding to a bit from the second pluralityof bits which is not comprised in the set of combinations, by a fixedvalue.
 22. The method of claim 21, wherein said pre-defined mapping is aGray mapping defining modulation states of a phase shift key modulation.23. The method of claim 21, wherein said pre-defined mapping is a Graymapping defining modulation states of a mixed modulation comprisingamplitude shift key modulation and phase shift key modulation, and saidfirst plurality of bits comprises an amplitude shift key set defining anabsolute value of a complex value of a modulation state associated withsaid plurality of bits within said Gray mapping and a phase shift keyset defining a phase value of a complex value of a modulation stateassociated with said plurality of bits within said Gray mapping; andstep c) further comprises: i. at least one inverting sub-step, carriedout on the amplitude shift key set, comprising: inverting all bitscomprised within one subset of said amplitude shift key set, said subsetconsisting of a bit which has an identical value for half of allpluralities of bits which are mapped to modulation states having thelowest transmission power of all existing modulation states, orinverting all bits comprised within one subset of said amplitude shiftkey set, said subset consisting of a bit which has an identical valuefor half of all pluralities of bits which are mapped to modulationstates having the highest transmission power of all existing modulationstates; or ii. at least one inverting sub-step carried out on the phaseshift key set.
 24. The method of claim 21, wherein said pre-definedmapping is a Gray mapping defining a modulation comprising a firstcomponent and a second component, said second component beingessentially orthogonal to said first component, and wherein said firstplurality of bits comprises a first set of bits associated with saidfirst component according to a second Gray mapping of bit sequences to afirst set of modulation states, and a second set of bits associated withsaid second component according to a third Gray mapping of bit sequencesto a second set of modulation states, wherein step c) comprises thesub-steps of i. inverting a bit comprised within said first set of bits,said bit having an identical value for half of all pluralities of bitswhich are mapped to modulation states having the lowest transmissionpower of all existing modulation states within said first set ofmodulation states according to said second Gray mapping; or inverting abit comprised within said first set of bits, said bit having anidentical value for half of all pluralities of bits which are mapped tomodulation states having the highest transmission power of all existingmodulation states within said first set of modulation states accordingto said second Gray mapping; and ii. inverting a bit comprised withinsaid second set of bits, said bit having an identical value for allpluralities of bits which are mapped to said second set of modulationstates having an identical sign of said second component of said complexvalue of said second set of modulation states associated with saidplurality of bits within said third Gray mapping.
 25. The method ofclaim 24, wherein said modulation is a square quadrature amplitudemodulation.
 26. The method of claim 19, further comprising the step oftransmitting information related to the identity of said at least onebit out of the first plurality of bits, which is replaced by a fixedvalue.